The NFL preseason is in full swing, which means training camps are no longer team exclusive activities. 2024’s round of joint practices has been laden with the kind of hot-headed skirmishes we’ve come to expect from pairing two rosters of hungry athletes fighting for their jobs in 90-plus degree weather.
While we haven’t gotten anything as epic as Aaron Donald dual wielding Cincinnati Bengals helmets so far, we do have another kerfuffle involving the Los Angeles Rams. It turns out, Rams’ players had a pretty good reason to go after Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Albert Huggins Wednesday.
Per The Athletic’s Jon Machota:
Rams not happy about Cowboys DT Albert Huggins knocking down a member of their staff pic.twitter.com/QxAWpKEt1I
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) August 14, 2024
That’s Huggins getting solid penetration in a blocking drill, then coming up on a Los Angeles staffer — plainly marked since, you know, he’s not wearing any pads — and tossing him to the ground. That led to Rams offensive linemen running up on him as he jogged back to the line of scrimmage and an earful from Cowboys coaches once he arrived.
He’d be escorted from the drill by a Dallas staffer soon after, but not before reportedly giving the Rams a one finger salute on his way out.
Albert Huggins was led off the field after finishing a pass rush drill by shoving the guy in shorts and t shirt to the ground. Followed it by giving the Rams the middle finger on the way out of the scrum pic.twitter.com/pB3Lv3y6M4
— Saad Yousuf (@SaadYousuf126) August 14, 2024
Huggins is coming off the most productive season of a five-year NFL career in 2023 when he made five starts with the Atlanta Falcons. He has zero sacks and five quarterback hits to his credit across 27 games.
