Melissa-area Cowboys coverage on Thursday centered on discipline, not depth charts. dallasweekly.news' account of the fine, the NFL fined the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints $500,000 each on Thursday for unsportsmanlike behavior at their Tuesday joint practice in Oxnard, California — penalties also documented by NFL.com and the Associated Press.
What NFL.com and AP confirmed
NFL.com quoted the league's statement confirming the matching fines. The NFL said the Competition Committee has emphasized sportsmanship at joint practices for several years and that clubs received a pre-camp memo on preventing unsportsmanlike behavior that could lead to injury. AP reported the league requested video of the Oxnard session before announcing the penalties. dallasweekly.news summarized those same confirmed points for North Texas readers.
Fox 4 also covered the matching fines in local television reporting that aligned with the AP and NFL.com accounts. Joint practices sit outside a full broadcast truck setup, which is why the league's video request, as AP described it, mattered to the review.
Players and coaches in the middle of it
According to the Associated Press, players from both teams threw punches in several skirmishes. Saints tight end Brock Rechsteiner body-slammed Cowboys safety Jalen Thompson. Saints center Erik McCoy threw a Cowboys helmet into the air and later exchanged punches with Cowboys linebacker Donovan Ezeiruaku, who was ejected — his second ejection of camp, AP noted.
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer and Saints coach Kellen Moore discussed ending the session early. Schottenheimer called the workout chippy and said Dallas did not handle the discipline element well; Moore later referred to "non-football stuff" in the joint practice.
