Jerod Mayo issued ‘serious’ warning about fighting in joint practice

Before Tuesday’s joint practice with the Eagles, Patriots Jerod Mayo had a message for his players about fighting during practice.

“We’re out here as football players, not fighters,” Mayo said.

Mayo said the Patriots scheduled one day of joint practice with the Eagles because he had noticed over the years that the second day of joint practices is typically a bit chipper than the first.

He also shed some light on his plan on how to deal with players who get caught fighting.

“You don’t fight in a real game. You get fined, you get kicked out. It’s the same thing here,” he said. “My message to the players, if you get in a fight out here, if you’re a starter, you’re playing in the whole preseason game. If you’re a non-starter, you won’t play at all. So, that’s kind of my mindset with that.”

There was a dustup during Tuesday’s practice during special teams reps. New England’s Joshua Uche and Philadelphia’s E.J. Jenkins were involved in a brief skirmish that caused both teams to crowd around the players, but things were broken up before anything major happened.

There weren’t any ejections, and it’s not exactly clear how Mayo defines a “fight.”

Safety Jabrill Peppers flashed a smile when asked about Mayo’s rule.

“He’s a player’s coach, so he knows how to get through to us,” Peppers said. “I just think he wanted to stress the importance, you know, protect your teammate but don’t do anything that’s going to get you fined, get you kicked out the game or out of practice or hurt the team.”

While Mayo can appear easygoing with players at times, Peppers said the coach was serious when delivering the message.

“He’s definitely serious,” Peppers said. “He plays a lot but when it’s time to work and when it’s time for business, it’s time for business.”