John AT Hull, a Republican from Iowa who served ten terms in Congress, was way ahead of his time when he expressed his disapproval of the joint practices, calling them “impractical.” And America took notice, as this headline in the Montana Record-Herald proves: “HULL OPPOSES PLAN.”
Okay, so Congressman Hull, in his capacity as Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, spoke out against joint exercises or “joint training operations” between the regular forces of the U.S. Army and the National Guard.
And, okay, it was in 1902.
But it’s the “impractical” that caught my eye when researching joint training sessions, and in that spirit, I’m happy to repurpose Hull’s message from back then for our modern NFL discussion.
Joint practices are back in the news for the only reason they ever are in the news: A fight has broken out. More specifically, fights. If the late, great comedian Rodney Dangerfield were alive, he’d say, “I was at the fights last night, and an NFL joint practice broke out.” That’s how common these fights have become. This time they occurred during a summer camp meeting between the Detroit Lions and the New York Giants, with the jostling and brawling lasting Monday and into Tuesday. The main attraction was a game of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! between Malik Nabers, a rookie receiver for the Giants, and Lions safety Kerby Joseph. Then came hilarious moments in the form of mini-one-on-one brawls between this player and that player.
“Things like this happen. At the end of the day, it’s football,” said Nabers, as Charlotte Carroll and Colton Pouncy of The athlete.
It’s football, but it’s also Hollywood. Let’s face it. Joint practices will now be broadcast like a regular season game, only without the halftime show. You let a group of professional athletes from opposing teams run onto the same practice field, order them to run into each other, all in full view of fans, cameras and reporters, and retaliation will find its way into the playbook.
It is worth noting that the dispute between Kerby Joseph and Malik Nabers may have been sparked by a statement made by Joseph.
“He did,” said Nabers, “but I won’t do it again.”
Read more here.
GO FORWARD
Joint NFL training without fights is impractical, so let’s look at some pros and cons
