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Rob Demovsky, ESPN Staff Writer
CINCINNATI — There are joint-practice fights and then there are joint-practice fights in which the same player is involved in both of them and then he’s removed from the field.
It was the latter when the Green Bay Packers and Cincinnati Bengals brawled on two separate occasions with Packers left guard Elgton Jenkins involved in both of them.
The first time, it was Jenkins who got shoved to the ground by Bengals linebacker Germaine Pratt during a run by Aaron Jones. Jenkins took exception to that, and it started a long skirmish between the Packers’ starting offense and the Bengals’ starting defense.
The Packers pulled Jenkins from the rest of that drill but in the next competitive period, he returned and went after Bengals defensive tackle DJ Reader and appeared to take a swing at him away from the play. That was the end of the day for Jenkins, who was escorted off the practice field by a Packers staff member.
“Man, he’s a jag, man,” Reader said. “I don’t know that guy. No idea who he is. I mean, I see he made two Pro Bowls, so good for him, but he blocked for Aaron Rodgers. That don’t make you nobody.”
Jenkins was not available for comment after the practice.
“I mean, it just takes away a little bit from practice, but Elgton totally was in the right the first time, I’m not going to say otherwise,” Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari said. “You’ve got to protect yourself. Emotions get high. I know he’ll never do it in the game, he’s never done that in the game. So, the practice, I mean, it’s a little bit different. You know you shouldn’t, but you also know there’s no consequences.”
Pratt didn’t express the same sentiment as Reader, saying it was “nothing personal, just football.”
The first incident happened right in front of quarterback Jordan Love, who was making his first appearance in a joint practice as the Packers’ starter. Before practice, Packers coach Matt LaFleur said he wanted to see how the session went before he committed to playing Love in Friday’s preseason game against the Bengals.
“Man, I’m not sure how it started or whatever, but I tried to just stay away right there,” Love said. “I think I was talking to one of their players and he was trying to hold me back, but I wasn’t trying to get hurt.”
And he didn’t, so the plan, according to Love, is for him to play “a couple of series” Friday.
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