The New Orleans Saints’ chaotic joint practice with the Dallas Cowboys came with a much bigger price tag than the standard training-camp scuffle.
The NFL fined the Saints $500,000 on August 20 for their role in the repeated fights that broke out during the teams’ August 18 practice in Oxnard, California. Dallas received the same punishment, bringing the league’s total financial penalty to $1 million.
And the size of New Orleans’ bill is significant.
Just two years ago, the NFL fined the New York Giants and Detroit Lions $200,000 apiece after multiple fights disrupted their joint practices. The Saints’ punishment is 2.5 times that amount, underscoring how seriously the league is treating conduct at joint sessions in 2026.
NFL Had Already Warned Saints, Other Teams About Practice Fights
The Saints cannot say the league failed to provide advance notice.
According to the NFL’s announcement, clubs received a memo before training camp reminding them of their responsibility to prevent unsportsmanlike behavior during joint practices, particularly conduct that could lead to injuries.
“The Competition Committee has made sportsmanship — including at joint practices — a point of emphasis over the past several years,” the league said in its statement announcing the fines.
That context makes the $500,000 penalty more than a reaction to a few viral clips.
The NFL had established the standard before camp, then watched a Saints-Cowboys session repeatedly spill over the line.
Saints center Erik McCoy was caught on video throwing a Cowboys player’s helmet during one altercation. Rookie receiver Brock Rechsteiner, the son of WWE Hall of Famer Scott Steiner, drew widespread attention after taking Cowboys safety Jalen Thompson to the ground with a wrestling-style move during another skirmish.
The fighting became frequent enough that Saints head coach Kellen Moore and Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer discussed ending the practice early.
Moore still believed New Orleans got useful work from the session.
“Not the ideal flow of the joint practice, but we got the work that we needed,” Moore said afterward.
The NFL clearly viewed the overall scene less forgivingly.
Saints’ $500,000 Fine Marks a Significant Jump From Recent Precedent
Training-camp fights are hardly new, but the comparison with the Giants and Lions shows why this penalty stands out.
When those teams repeatedly fought during two joint practices in August 2024, each organization was fined $200,000. The league had also warned teams that summer that fighting and unprofessional conduct would not be tolerated.
New Orleans and Dallas now face a substantially steeper consequence for similar behavior.
That does not necessarily establish $500,000 as a new automatic fine for future brawls. The NFL can evaluate incidents individually.
But it does provide 31 other teams with a fresh benchmark: allowing a joint practice to repeatedly deteriorate can now cost an organization half a million dollars.
For the Saints, the timing is especially notable because Moore actively sought out joint practices as a major part of the team’s 2026 training-camp plan. He said in March that those environments could be “really beneficial” for his roster.
New Orleans scheduled three of them this summer, against Jacksonville, Dallas and the Los Angeles Rams.
The Cowboys session demonstrated the other side of that equation. Joint practices give starters meaningful competition without exposing them to a full preseason game, but the value disappears quickly when drills turn into repeated confrontations.
Saints and Cowboys Will See Each Other Again
There is also one more wrinkle to the punishment: these teams are not finished with each other.
The Saints are scheduled to visit Dallas on August 28 for their final preseason game, only 10 days after the fight-filled practice.
That meeting normally would amount to one final roster evaluation before the regular season.
After $1 million in combined fines, flying helmets and multiple skirmishes, both coaching staffs now have another priority as well: making sure the rematch looks nothing like what happened in Oxnard.
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