At least seven fights erupted at the Dallas Cowboys’ joint practice with the New Orleans Saints. One in particular among those could only be described as a full-blown brawl, which ended with Saints’ rookie wide receiver Brock Rechsteiner suplexing Cowboys’ new veteran safety Jalen Thompson as air horns blasted in a hopeless attempt to stop them. These joint practice fights have notably divided the NFL community, with one half praising the intensity and the other half criticizing the lack of discipline. Pat McAfee landed somewhere in the middle when he discussed the issue on his show.

“These are two teams with good cultures,” he said on the Pat McAfee Show. “Dallas Cowboys running sprints after practice on their own accord. Obviously, if one of them gets in a fight, they’re all going to come. New Orleans Saints, everybody’s talking about how happy they are, how together they are. One of them gets in a fight, they’re all together. There’s some good we can take away from these fights. This seems like a together bunch. This seems like a group that is very together.

“Now, obviously, throwing punches and haymakers at helmets and non-helmets and belly-to-back suplexes and German suplexes and things can lead to injuries, and it can also lead to the question, ‘You’ve got enough energy to fight each other. Are we not practicing hard enough?”

Per clips circulating on social media, Rechsteiner had a heated exchange with Cowboys’ Caelen Carson, who responded by grabbing Rechsteiner’s facemask and pulling him roughly. Both their teammates gathered around them, and the fight ensued. Jalen Thompson tackled Rechsteiner, but the latter grabbed him, pulled him to the sideline, and suplexed him as Thompson landed roughly on his right arm.

The “not practising hard enough” question from Pat McAfee lands on both squads. The Cowboys have already proven they can take this energy to the field with their first preseason victory over the Seattle Seahawks. The Saints, meanwhile, have tasted defeat at the hands of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and that has only added fuel to their tempers. As for Rechsteiner’s suplex on Thompson, that’s only going to help him further his career if football doesn’t pan out.

Brock is the son of former WCW and WWE legend Scott Steiner. Scott, alongside his brother Rick, was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Brock, in turn, is already enrolled in the WWE Next In Line Program, and at the Saints’ rookie minicamp earlier this offseason, he revealed he’s eventually going to be a wrestler.

“I want to pursue football as long as I can, play as long as I can, but once I’m done, I’ll get into wrestling, too,” Brock had said.

The obvious injury risks aside, even throwing a punch on game day can get you ejected from the field or cut from the roster entirely. To make matters worse, Rechsteiner has already been suspended for the first six games of the regular season for a different matter.

But post-practice, Saints head coach Kellen Moore seemed to have a positive outlook for his squad’s practice – as well as the Cowboys.

“There’s some edginess to football,” Moore said. “We get to learn from how this one navigated, and we got some good stuff out of this.”

Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer, meanwhile, felt being “in charge of Fight Club,” and was critical of his own players.

“That is not the way we like to do business; gotta be better,” Schotty said. “But I got a look at the film. Now, we’re certainly not gonna take sh*t from anybody, but again, it was chippy on both sides, and like I said, I want our guys to play on the edge without going over the edge.”

Both teams are set to face off in Dallas for their third preseason game. With tempers, helmets, punches, and suplexes flying high at camp, it’ll be interesting to see how these two teams battle it out on the gridiron. But for now, just like Pat McAfee, many around the league will continue to critique them.