Packer Central

Love At Center of Packers-Broncos Practice Skirmish

Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur was looking for a fight-free joint practice against the Denver Broncos on Friday. Mostly, he got his wish.

Bill Huber

Packers-Broncos during last year's regular-season game.
Packers-Broncos during last year's regular-season game. / Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur got his wish for a fight-free joint practice at the Denver Broncos on Friday. But not before a couple reality checks.

During one of the early 11-on-11 periods, Broncos outside linebacker Nik Bonitto appeared to hit the arm of Packers quarterback Jordan Love. The ball was intercepted and returned for a touchdown.

Not that anyone on Green Bay’s side cared at the moment.

The quarterback is supposed to be off-limits during a joint practice. Not surprisingly, LaFleur and offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich, who were watching from behind Love, as usual, weren’t happy, and Love’s teammates rushed in to protect their quarterback and leader.

A scuffle ensued but no punches were thrown and calm was quickly restored.

As it turns out, it might have been a case of mistaken identity.

“I’m not sure. That’s one of those ones I’ve got to go back and see,” Love told reporters afterward. “I was going to throw and (right tackle) Zach Tom got pushed and hit my shoulder. I don’t think it was anything with the D-line or anything like that. Just friendly fire.”

In the moment, though, the assumption was Bonitto had broken the cardinal rule of joint practices.

“Yeah, I think a lot of guys didn’t really see it and know what happened,” Love said. “We make it a big point to stay away from the quarterback, so they might’ve thought the D-lineman hit my arm or something like that, which I don’t think happened. But guys just didn’t see what happened.”

Here is the play:

“I think it’s all about trying to get productive work and cutting all the BS, all the fighting,” LaFleur said before practice. “Naturally, it’s football. There’s going to be competitiveness, there’s going to be chippiness, but can you keep your composure? I think that’s part of the beauty of the game. When you’re in a real-life game situation, it does get chippy, it does get testy. Guys start to talk. But can you keep your composure?

During a special-teams period, Packers long snapper Matt Orzech and Broncos defensive back Devon Key got into a pushing match. Moments later, the composure that LaFleur was looking for seemingly was missing as Orzech’s snap sailed over the head of 6-foot-5 punter Daniel Whelan and threw the end zone.

Joint practices are almost synonymous with extracurricular activities ranging from pushing and shoving to outright brawls. That’s the nature of the beast when ultracompetitive people are battling each other without fear of a meaningful penalty and no fear of being fined by the NFL.

Largely, though, LaFleur and his counterpart, Broncos coach Sean Payton, got their wish with a fight-free practice, as the pushing and shoving was limited to, well, pushing and shoving.

“Just a good, competitive practice” is what LaFleur was looking for. “Same thing we do against our people accept it’s good to go against an unfamiliar opponent. It makes these guys really trust their rules. I think it tests our rules, certainly, from a structural standpoint on the defensive side of the ball. They run a different defense; it’s a 34 defense in their base. And then offensively, they’re going to give us some different concepts that our defense has not seen.

“I think all in all, it’s going to be a good, competitive practice. I know being able to practice some of the kickoff stuff will be good for our team – both teams. We just want a good, competitive practice and want to keep it safe, just like we do with our own group. We want to eliminate all fighting possible.”

The Packers and Broncos will meet on Sunday night in their second preseason game of the year. Love and most of the Green Bay starters are not expected to play.

RELATED: Here’s what happened at Friday’s joint practice

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.