BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns win as a team, lose as a team, and when somebody makes a mistake on the field, they run as a team.
During an 11-on-11 drill late in Sunday’s practice at team headquarters in Berea, a skirmish broke out between defensive tackle Chad Thomas and tight end Pharaoh Brown and after a brief escalation when fellow tight end Orson Charles joined the fray, coach Freddie Kitchens had the players run three sets of sprints sideline-to-sideline before resuming the on-field work.
“We just don’t practice penalties,” Kitchens said. “If you do something wrong in life, there’s consequences. If we do something wrong on the field, there’s consequences because we don’t practice penalties.”
Defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi added, “Nobody makes a mistake on purpose, but when you get a penalty, the whole team pays for it. That’s an example of that. Being able to bounce back from it and have to finish practice, focus and still have a job to do, I feel like it’s good for the team.”
Veteran linebacker Christian Kirksey, a defensive captain one year ago, stepped into the pile, pulled Thomas away from both Brown and Charles and attempted to calm down the second-year defensive lineman.
“Emotions flare,” Ogunjobi said. “I feel like sometimes, as competitors, we get to this level where we want to compete, compete, compete and you’re always on that line, but you don’t want to go over the edge, though. Sometimes, it happens, but as teammates, you’ve just got to pick your brother up and tell him, ‘Come on, let’s go.’”
Defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson added, “It’s training camp, man. Tempers get hot a little bit. Guys are competing, trying to make the team, trying to earn a spot, not just make the team or be on the practice squad. It happens. I’ve been in a few of them, even in real games, so it happens.”
During the sprints, fans yelled at the players to hustle more and after being involved in the fight, Thomas was an easy and popular recipient for the comments. Thomas did not take the criticism well, and neither did his teammates.
Several players used explicit language to respond to the jeers, and Thomas went a step further when he tossed an obscene gesture toward the fans.
“Chad Thomas, as you guys see, is a very emotional, passionate guy,” Kitchens said. “I want those guys to play with passion, but he’s also a young guy, so he has to understand and develop a sense of when to move on.”
Although the fight was not a great example of players taking care of each other during practice, Richardson believes the team has done a good job handling the physicality in the correct manner over the first four days of training camp.
“Our guys are taking care of each other for the most part, other than the fight,” Richardson said. “Guys were still taking care of each other, even when the fists were flying. Guys weren’t hitting in the head or anything like that, so just a lot of jabbing back and forth.”
