NFL hammers New York Giants, Lions with massive fines for fighting

The New York Giants and Detroit Lions held back-to-back joint practices earlier this week and both were highlighted by massive brawls and smaller skirmishes.

Several of the fights, including one involving Giants rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers, were particularly violent in nature. Even quarterback Daniel Jones dove into a pile at one point.

After having sent teams a memo last month warning that in-practice fights would not be tolerated, the NFL hammered the Giants and Lions with massive fines to the tune of $200,000 each.

NFL confirmed today that the Detroit Lions and New York Giants organizations have each been fined $200,000 for multiple fights that broke out at the joint practices between the clubs earlier this week.  All NFL clubs were reminded in a memo sent last month that fighting and…

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 7, 2024

Many of the players dismissed the fights as little more than “football stuff” compounded by the heat. Even Giants head coach Brian Daboll seemed indifferent to the violence before Tuesday’s second and final joint practice.

“Practice is a little bit different than a game. Obviously, you can’t do that in a game. We’re going to try to clean up some of the things that led to some of that, but we’re going to play hard and play physical and have another good practice,” he told reporters.

Lions head coach Dan Campbell was less enthused, calling the fights a “waste of time.”

Both Daboll and Campbell were forced to pull players off the field during Tuesday’s practice and each session was ended early due to repeated melees.

“At the end of the day, we want to keep the fights to a minimum just so we can get our work in, get our reps in, and have a successful practice. But it’s just training camp. It just happens,” linebacker Brian Burns told reporters after Monday’s practice.

In total, there were more than 10 fights over the two-day period. The aggression and physicality drew national attention which is clearly something the NFL wasn’t too pleased with.