On Saturday, Dan Campbell and his Detroit Lions will take on the Indianapolis Colts in their second preseason game of the year, and leading up to the game, the two teams will be participating in some joint practices.
Joint practices are not something new for Campbell as he also participated in them when he was a player.
Campbell spoke to the media on Monday and he said that early in his career, he learned how to fight during joint practices but by the time he got to Dallas, Bill Parcells made it very clear that fights would not be tolerated.
“You learn how to fight,” Campbell said Monday. “You learned you always get involved, that’s one. And two is you learn you keep your head on a swivel.”
“That was early in my career,” Campbell said of training camp fights. “When I got to Dallas, I remember we were going to practice against the Texans. I remember Coach (Bill) Parcells stood up in front of the room and was like, ‘No fighting. Anybody fights, you’re done.’ And everybody believed it, so we didn’t have one fight and got great work.”
Dan Campbell knows joint practices are not about fighting
When it comes to joint practices, Dan Campbell knows that joint practices are not about fighting but getting good work with your opponent.
“So we just have to make an emphasis of that. I know they will, we will. We’re not out there to fight. But we’re going to compete and have good work, so I would say most of the experiences I’ve had have been really good. Really good.”
“You want to trust the partner you’re working with, and I have a ton of respect and a really great relationship with Frank Reich and Chris Ballard,” Campbell said. “I’ve known them for a long time, and I just think they do it right, and they’re like we are in terms of, ‘Man, we’re going to do this the right way.’ And we’ll be able to work together and get great work out of this and be smart about what we’re doing, so I think that’s the most important.”
Campbell added that when you have a week of joint practices followed by a game, it “feels like you’re getting two games in a week.”
“It feels like you’re getting two games in a week, two games in two days,” Campbell said. “You won’t have all those reps, but yet we’re going to get over 30 reps with our starters against very good competition, full pads. And it’s structured between Frank and myself. Man, we’ll get all the looks we need to get, all the situations, it’ll just be good.”
The Lions will take on the Colts this coming Saturday.
