The Pittsburgh Steelers had their first training camp fight on Wednesday, and head coach Mike Tomlin shared his thoughts on the scuffle following the team's second padded practice of training camp.
The fight broke out after linebacker Elandon Roberts laid a hit on quarterback Justin Fields, knocking him to the ground. A scrum ensued and there was some pushing and shoving, but ultimately the fight was on the more tame side of the spectrum.
Thankfully, both sides of the ball got together afterwards and made up, so it appears it's all water under the bridge. Here's what Tomlin had to say about it (H/T Steelers Depot):
"Obviously we are at the very beginnings of this progress process, and so there's a lot of lessons to be learned. Some formal, some informal," Tomlin said. "We got a little bit less than professional and chippy today. It's an opportunity to teach and learn as part of this process. As much as we hate it, we'll learn and grow from that."
The play that started the fight:
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) July 31, 2024
(via @the_hot_take) pic.twitter.com/7Ot3z50JAz
The man who started the skirmish, Roberts, didn't blame the offense for doing what it did, but called his hit on Fields "just a little tap."
“It was just a little tap, but the offense did what they supposed to do," Roberts said, per Aaron Becker of Yardbarker. "You’re always supposed to protect your quarterback. … Imma stay away from the quarterback.”
Training camp fights are a tradition as old as time, so seeing the Steelers scrapping amongst themselves is nothing earth-shattering. What's important is the team gets past it, and it looks like that happened.
According to the team's official training camp schedule, the Steelers will be back on the practice field on Thursday, and will then hold their "Friday Night Lights" practice on Friday.
With the calendar turning to August on Thursday, we have just two weeks left of training camp.
