Why Are There Fights In NFL Training Camps?

In light of Hard Knocks last week on HBO that showed a couple fights, and a couple of big ones breaking out today during the Denver Broncos practice causal fans of the game have begun to ask why these fights happen, and why there are not harsh penalties imposed by each team for players that do fight? It should be known that these fights are usually contained to training camp and obviously do not spill over into the games or continue into practices during the regular season. I understand how the public would have questions about these fights because we live in a world today where everyone is a winner, everyone gets a medal, and "violence" like this is often looked down upon. My goal in this post is to explain why these fights break out. The first reason there are fights in camp is pretty obvious, football is a violent sport. When you have guys who are extremely large, athletic, and aggressive all on one field together eventually a disagreement is going to happen. Football being a violent sport is the obvious answer, but there are quite a few other reasons these "disagreements" take place. Number one is a lot of these guys are playing for jobs. There are only a handful of guys who have a guaranteed spot on a NFL team, and the rest have to compete for their jobs. In most cases there are hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line, and these guys have to show that they have what it takes earn a spot on the team. There are 90+ guys at any given NFL training camp, and they are competing for 53 roster spots. Out of those 53 roster spots there are not many that are "open". If you look at the Denver roster, as hard as it is to believe there are maybe only 10 jobs that are up for grabs. An example would be the offensive line where the starters are pretty much entrenched at their positions, but the question is who will be the back ups? How will the guys competing for a back up spots stand out enough to be kept on the team? The answer is they have to make plays to stand out, and playing physical is one of the best ways to do that. On the defensive side of the ball there are guys doing the same thing. So basically you have two groups of guys, competing for for a limited number of roster spots, in a violent sport, where they will be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, or end up working regular jobs like the rest of us. Then you have the scenario where you have a guy trying to make the team going against the established veteran, and maybe the guy trying to make the team plays through the whistle, or is just playing with a little more intensity than what a normal practice would dictate and in turn that starts a fight. With football being a team sport as well as a violent sport it is important for your teammates to know that you always have their back. This means that if you are a defensive player and someone from the offense starts a fight with one of your teammates you are obligated to jump in. These fights can actually build team chemistry, and can be way for the entire team to come together if they know that every player on the team has each others back. Before the show Hard Knocks debuted on HBO fights in training camp were largely something that only players, coaches, the media, and people who have played the game at a high level understood. When the New York Jets were the team featured on Hard Knocks you actually saw Rex Ryan, the head coach of the Jets, ask a player to start a fight to raise the intensity level of the camp. Fights are usually broken up quickly, and with all the padding,face masks, and helmets there is little probability of a player being injured. So the next time you read about, or see that a fight has broken out in a training camp practice understand that there are usually a hand full of circumstances that have lead up to the event, most likely nobody was hurt, and the only people making a big deal out of it are the members of the media looking to drum up a story.