Things get physical with Bears in joint practices
LAKE FOREST, Ill. — It started with one instance on Wednesday, and then there were at least two more on Thursday.
The Miami Dolphins and Chicago Bears had their share of scuffles, quick skirmishes and general brouhaha over the course of two joint practices in the northwest suburbs outside Chicago before the teams meet for Saturday’s preseason opener.
The largest commotion came on Thursday after Dolphins safety Eric Rowe gave Bears tight end Cole Kmet a shove on a pass to the flat that, while the teams weren’t tackling in that portion of practice, knocked Kmet to the ground. Kmet got up and pushed back against Rowe after the play, and players from both sides rushed in for some brief words with each other before being dispersed.
“I just saw him catch the ball, and I just gave him a little shoulder tap and he fell and pushed me in the back,” Rowe said following practice. “After that, it just — swarm. I wasn’t even mad about it. I was just laughing.”
Early in Thursday drills, Adam Shaheen, a former Bears tight end that has been with the Dolphins since last season, got reacquainted with an ex-teammate, All-Pro outside linebacker Khalil Mack. In a one-on-one blocking drill, Shaheen and Mack got into it with Shaheen ending up on the ground. Nearby teammates from both sides joined in to engage in some extracurricular chirping.
“That’s just guys talking,” Shaheen said. “It’s going to happen. It wasn’t just me. It wasn’t just him. It was back and forth. It’s going to happen now, and it’s going to happen in the game. It was nothing crazy.”
There was a quick scuffle at Wednesday’s first of the two joint practices when Dolphins receiver Allen Hurns was hit by Bears safety Teez Tabor on a route over the middle.
Dolphins coach Brian Flores was in quickly to break it up before things escalated after Hurns got in Tabor’s face over the physical and somewhat dangerous play on a defenseless receiver going up for a catch.
“Yeah, I was a bouncer on that play,” said Flores, laughing. “It gets chippy. It’s football.”
Flores was more concerned that the team was not focused on the practice situation and let a physical play, which maybe wouldn’t have even been called for a personal foul in a game, distract from execution.
“For me, it was a two-minute situation, and it was more of a learning tool for our team,” Flores said. “Get in there, I had to call a timeout, so I wasted a timeout in that situation when we could just go back, forget about the play and move on, keep our poise in that instance. … Just trying to keep practice going and not have any issues.”
For both teams, the joint practices marked the first time they had seen any opposition since the end of the 2020 season. That’s a sure way to get the competitive juices flowing again.
“I think you’re going to have that,” said Shaheen, who also caught a touchdown later as Dolphins tight ends were active at Thursday’s practice with three receivers out for Miami. “That’s why we do the joint practices. They got us, we got them, and it was just a good practice I thought all around.”
Added Rowe: “It’s just the sport. Just out there competing hard and sometimes things just get chippy; but then just like Coach said, ‘You’ve just got to put in the back; you just go to the next play.’ Can’t let it affect you the rest of the game.”
This type of joint-practice setting was missing from last season’s preseason, so many of the players haven’t been in such an environment for two years — or never as a pro for younger players.
The same can be said for the preseason game itself coming on Saturday when the Dolphins face the Bears in a 1 p.m. kickoff at Soldier Field. There were no preseason games or joint practices in 2020 as the NFL minimized inter-team contact outside of regular-season games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.