LeSean McCoy, Trent Cole in fight
PHILADELPHIA -- LeSean McCoy hit the ground, and then he tried to hit the man who put him there.
That was linebacker Trent Cole, a good friend of McCoy's. The two squared off Sunday in the first fight of the Philadelphia Eagles' training camp.
"Next thing you know, they're on the ground scuffling," linebacker Brandon Graham said. "It was just a friendly thing, you know. They're always competing and talking stuff to each other. It was just one of those things."
This is one of the unintended consequences when you try to conduct football drills without pads or tackling. The defensive players aren't quite sure where the lines are drawn, and sometimes they overstep them. The offensive players feel a responsibility to each other to let the defenders know when they've gone too far.
"The whole camp so far, they've just been touching just a little too much," McCoy said. "I'm trying to let them know 'it's OK, you can' t cover me.' We'll go in the locker room area and talk it out, joke it out. It's one thing when you don't know a guy and he's trying to win a job. That's actually one of my good friends."
Cole declined to comment on the scuffle, which was broken up before too much damage could be done. Graham said it was just a sign of two guys who are competing.
The defensive players draw their own lines in the grass. On Saturday, McCoy was seen taunting linebacker Connor Barwin after beating him on a wheel route. According to Graham, Cole "nudged" McCoy during a play midway through Sunday's practice. Even Graham had to laugh at his word choice, since McCoy wound up on the ground.
"It wasn't really a nudge," Graham said, laughing. "You know, 270 [pounds] against 200. That's not a nudge. But there was definitely a lot of competing right there. It was just a regular camp fight. They were just over there, laughing and talking."
Later in the practice, McCoy caught a pass in the flat while Cole was covering him. He also ran through Cole's side of the line and kept going toward the end zone.
On Monday, the Eagles will practice at Lincoln Financial Field for the first time, and they will also be in full pads.
