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Tempers flared during Wednesday’s joint practice between the Atlanta Falcons and Tennessee Titans, with quarterback Michael Penix Jr. finding himself at the center of a physical scuffle.
The incident began after Penix completed a long pass to wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud III. As the play ended, Penix and Titans defenders exchanged words, and the trash talk quickly escalated.
Players from both teams ran in from the sidelines, and Penix ended up in the middle of a pile, appearing to be thrown to the ground before several Falcons players, including McCloud and fellow receiver Drake London, came to his aid.
“I don’t know where I was at in it,” Penix said. “It was a lot of people. I knew I was down there somewhere. I wasn’t the only one, though.”
Penix appreciated his teammates stepping in, stating, “I’m glad they did, because obviously that’s not something that we want to be doing in practice. We want to get all reps in, get that good work in. But it went how it went. But to see the team have my back and they were there, make sure they protect me. A lot of guys asked me if I was good, and it was good to know that those guys had my back.”
There were no reported injuries, and Penix returned for the next offensive series. But the tension continued. One play later, Falcons offensive linemen Kaleb McGary and Chris Lindstrom got into it with Titans defenders. On the adjacent field, another scrum broke out between Tennessee’s offense and Atlanta’s defense.
“They had a lot of words throughout practice, so I gave them my words, and it just went a little bit too far,” a smiling Penix said.
He later joked about his reaction, saying, “I kind of blacked out. It was somebody else out there. I don’t really do too much talking until somebody say something to me, and maybe I’ll want to, ‘OK, I threw a touchdown, now what y’all talking about,’ and then I guess not everybody takes that the right way. I think that’s all it was. They probably looked at me as just the quarterback, [that] I wasn’t that type of person. But I’m from Tampa. I’m from Dade City. … There’s a respect part about it. We’re all playing, we’re all competing at a high level, but when disrespect comes in, it’s like, ‘All right, this ain’t football no more.’”
Falcons quarterback coach DJ Williams admitted his initial reaction was “absolutely” panic.
“Obviously, you don’t want that, but I take some positive out of it,” Williams said. “Like you saw the guys take up for him, and I think that speaks to his leadership and who he is in that locker room. Obviously, as coaches, we’re upstairs, they’re downstairs. We don’t really see a lot, but obviously he has a relationship and the trust of the guys because everybody ran to his defense. So, I think that’s a good thing for the Falcons.”
Head coach Raheem Morris...
