Cowboys-Saints Joint Practice Descends Into Chaos as Coaches Consider Stopping It

The Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints turned Tuesday’s joint practice in Oxnard, California, into a full-blown brawl session, with punches thrown, helmets tossed, and players ejected. What was supposed to be a final tune-up before the preseason finale instead became defined by chaos, with Dallas head coach Brian Schottenheimer admitting afterward that he spent more time managing scrums than evaluating football.

The fighting got so out of hand that Schottenheimer and Saints coach Kellen Moore discussed ending practice early. It never came to that, but the number of skirmishes, at least a handful of full-team dustups plus additional shoving matches, made it one of the most chaotic joint sessions of this preseason cycle.

Big fight between the Cowboys defense and Saints offense. One Saints player chucked a Cowboys’ player helmet. pic.twitter.com/fudi2abRqL

— Joseph Hoyt (@JoeJHoyt) August 18, 2026

Fights Erupt During Joint Practice

The chippiness escalated quickly into team-wide brawls. Cowboys linebacker Donovan Ezeiruaku was ejected after officials saw him throw a punch, the second time that’s happened to him during training camp this summer. Saints center Erik McCoy was involved in the same scrum, at one point grabbing a Cowboys player’s helmet and chucking it into the air.

Cornerback Caelen Carson also threw a punch after a Saints player grabbed his facemask and wouldn’t let go, though Carson was allowed to stay in practice. Multiple other confrontations broke out between the Cowboys’ defense and Saints’ offense, with groups of players pushing and shoving down the sideline before coaches and teammates stepped in to separate them.

Cowboys & Saints React to the Chaos

Speaking to reporters after practice, Schottenheimer didn’t dodge the obvious storyline. “Right now, I’m in charge of fight club,” he said, before adding that both sides shared blame for how the day unfolded.

“We’re going to play on the edge and we’re not going to take … s— from anybody. But at the same time, I don’t think [the Saints] were the only ones stirring up the s—. I think we might’ve been stirring it up as well. It was a sloppy practice all, and all and all, it’s got to be better.”

Safety Jalen Thompson had a different take.

“We talk about brotherhood all the time on our team, and if we see a guy in a scuffle or anything like that, our job is to go over there and try and help it out and try to break it up as best as we can,” Thompson said.

Thompson himself got tangled up in one of the fights, taken down by a Saints tight end during a scrum that started with a facemask grab on Carson.

Nothing about Tuesday’s fights has resulted in confirmed discipline beyond Ezeiruaku’s on-field ejection, and any fines tied to the collective bargaining agreement’s joint-practice rules would likely surface only after film review. The Cowboys and Saints are scheduled to meet again in the preseason finale on Aug. 28, giving both sides a chance to settle the score in a game that actually counts on the scoreboard.