The New England Patriots will have a joint practice with the Green Bay Packers on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, there is something that occurred a season ago that New England Patriots special teams captain Matthew Slater does not want to happen again.
Matthew Slater Wants No Fighting In Patriots/Packers Joint Practices with the Packers
Last season, New England hosted the Carolina Panthers for a joint practice. There was a ton of fighting over a two-day span, which led to eight players being ejected and one player being carted off the field. It happened to be wide receiver, Kristian Wilkerson. Several legitimate fights broke out, and it happened to spill over into the fan bleachers.
Because of this, Matthew Slater has questioned whether or not joint practices are even worth other people’s time. He told this to Zack Cox of NESN:
“I don’t know what we expect,” Slater said. “I know we were trying to come out here and get better and compete, but ever since I’ve been in the league, you see joint practices and there are fights.”
It will be interesting to see whether or not tempers are going to flare during the joint practices between the New England Patriots and the Green Bay Packers. Both teams are trying to be disciplined and they both want to get better and not hurt their respective teams.
“You want to be smart when you have these practices,” Slater said after New England’s practice after Sunday to NESN. “We’ve seen these practices get out of hand the last couple of years here and then around the league. We want to be smart and use it as an opportunity to improve our football team, and I’m sure Green Bay feels the same way.”
This will be the first New England Patriots joint practice of training camp. The Green Bay Packers already had a joint practice a week ago with the Cincinnati Bengals. There were some mini scrums, but there was nothing major. Both teams hope nothing escalates over the next couple of days during these joint practices and it would make Matthew Slater and other people very happy.
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