Practice fight involves Steelers stars Minkah Fitzpatrick, Chase Claypool

An apparently significant skirmish broke out late during Pittsburgh Steelers practice Monday, several players confirmed, and it involved two high-profile players.

The conflict began with Minkah Fitzpatrick and Chase Claypool yelling at each other, guard Kevin Dotson confirmed.

“When you come out here and are pretty much fighting the person (across from you) for two hours,” Dotson said, “eventually some fight happens.”

The scuffle began with words between Fitzpatrick – the Steelers two-time All Pro safety – and Claypool – their leader in touchdowns last season. But it ended in a physical altercation involving many more players.

“I just saw the big pile,” Dotson said.

Pushing and shoving during training-camp practices are not uncommon. Over the past month, there have been multiple incidents during practices open to the public.

This skirmish, however, seemed to disconcert the Steelers more than most – perhaps because of who was involved, perhaps because of the furor with which they went at each other, perhaps because the regular season is approaching quickly (13 days until the opener at Buffalo).

In what might be viewed as a signal of the incident’s significance, coach Mike Tomlin flatly refused to acknowledge it when speaking with media.

Team policy prohibits media from reporting any observations made at practices closed to the public; only happenings team personnel confirm are able to be reported.

Tomlin was asked a question “about what happened in the end zone down there.”

“What? What are you referring to?” Tomlin said.

The reporter replied, “The scrap in the end zone.”

“Yeah,” Tomlin answered, “I have no idea what you’re referring to.”

Tomlin also chose not to divulge what he said to the team in a post-practice gathering.

“I’ll keep it between myself and them,” he said.

Veteran defensive lineman Chris Wormley said his back was turned when the scuffle began, but Wormley acknowledged Tomlin addressing the team.

“He’s the head coach, so he has to say something about it,” Wormley said. “Those two (players) will make up and carry on and prepare for Buffalo in Week 1.”

Dotson referred to Fitzpatrick and Claypool as “competitors.”

“You almost expect it (a practice fight) to happen at least once,” Dotson said.

As part of covid protocol, only a select, predetermined number of players are available to media after each practice. Aside from Tomlin, the only players who spoke publicly Monday were Wormley, Dotson and veteran defensive lineman Tyson Alualu.

“It’s the end of camp,” Wormley said of the Claypool/Fitzpatrick brouhaha. “Everyone is ready to play somebody else other than us every day in the preseason.

“Sometimes, that’s part of football. As a whole, we want to stick together as a team and let that stuff go.”

Alualu diplomatically said that being so late in “training-camp mode” brings out a “competitive edge” in that “people are getting chippy.” He said Tomlin’s address to the team was “just about being smart.”

“I don’t there’s anything you have to look into,” Alualu said. “But we understand we don’t want - especially our star players – we don’t want anybody getting hurt. We have got to be more smart about that.”

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