The NFL has fined the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints $500,000 each after their joint practice in Oxnard produced repeated fights, ejections and discussions about ending the session early.

Players left their assigned practice fields to join altercations elsewhere, punches were thrown and work had to be stopped several times. One player threw an opponent’s helmet, while Saints receiver Brock Rechsteiner was filmed slamming Cowboys safety Jalen Thompson to the ground. The league requested practice footage before imposing penalties totalling $1m on Thursday.

“The Competition Committee has made sportsmanship — including at joint practices — a point of emphasis over the past several years,” the NFL said. “All clubs were reminded by memo prior to training camp of their responsibility in preventing unsportsmanlike behaviour at joint practices that has the potential to result in injury.”

Dallas owner Jerry Jones described the fine as ‘pretty stiff’ and confirmed that the Cowboys will appeal, although he accepted that the size of the sanction demonstrated the seriousness with which the league views conduct during joint sessions.

“It does make the point that it’s a serious matter and it starts with everybody at all levels of a club — and the clubs in this case where two are practising together,” Jones said. “It really emphasises the league’s intent to control it from the very top, which, when they start dealing out those kinds of fines, they get your attention.”

Jones also intends to fine Cowboys players identified as participants. Clubs are permitted to impose discipline under the collective bargaining agreement even though the league chose to penalise the organisations rather than announce sanctions against individuals.

Dallas linebacker Donovan Ezeiruaku was ejected after throwing a punch, his second removal from practice during the same training camp. Head coach Brian Schottenheimer had previously dismissed him from an August 4th session following another punch and spoke at length with the second-year defender about maintaining control.

Cornerback Caelen Carson was among the other Cowboys players involved in confrontations, while Saints centre Erik McCoy reportedly threw an opponent’s helmet. Rechsteiner’s takedown of Thompson inevitably drew additional attention because the suspended rookie receiver is the son of former professional wrestler Scott Steiner. The most concerning sequence, however, began after an incident involving Cowboys linebacker Sam Williams and Saints tight end Moliki Matavao. Players working on the neighbouring field abandoned their own drill to join the confrontation, creating the kind of uncontrolled gathering the NFL’s preseason instruction was designed to prevent.

Schottenheimer and Saints coach Kellen Moore considered bringing the practice to an early conclusion before deciding to complete the scheduled work.

“There’s a discipline element to playing this football game,” Schottenheimer said immediately afterwards. “Unfortunately, we didn’t handle that very well today. We’re always going to play with an edge. We’re always going to be physical. But there’s a line, and we crossed it too many times.”

Moore subsequently contrasted the Oxnard session with New Orleans’ cleaner joint work against Jacksonville and the Los Angeles Rams.

“Obviously there was a lot of non-football stuff in that joint practice, unfortunately,” he said. “We had a clean one [with the Rams] today, we had a clean one with Jacksonville last week. We had some really good work overall.”

The punishment is more than double that imposed after fighting between the New York Giants and Detroit Lions in 2024, when each organisation was fined $200,000, but arrives as teams increasingly regard controlled joint practices as offering more useful preparation than preseason games, allowing coaches to create specific situations and match starters without exposing them for four full quarters. That value disappears when periods are interrupted by fighting or starters risk injury in mass confrontations. Further skirmishes during Thursday’s Giants–Dolphins practice demonstrated that the problem is not confined to Dallas and New Orleans.

Giants coach John Harbaugh had warned his players that throwing a punch would result in removal from practice and duly benched tackle Jermaine Eluemunor after an altercation. A separate confrontation began when receiver Calvin Austin III objected to a hit out of bounds, drawing quarterback Jameis Winston and several team-mates into the dispute.

The Cowboys and Saints will see each other again during their preseason finale at AT&T Stadium on August 28th. By then, Dallas will have completed its appeal and identified the players facing internal fines.