Tempers Heating Up in Arizona
With so many doubters sprouting again for the Arizona Cardinals chances this season, some may take the latest news out of the team’s camp the wrong way, while others see it as bonding.
On the Cards’ first day of being in full equipment for practice, several teammates got into scuffles. Among those were Pro Bowl Defensive Tackle (DT) Darnell Dockett and offensive tackle (OT) Levi Brown.
Also in some disagreements was newcomer linebacker (LB) Joey Porter giving fellow linebacker Cody Brown a piece of his mind. Brown reacted quite passively when tight end (TE) Stephen Spach kept grabbing Brown’s facemask in the drills.
The team was forced indoors due to rain for a second straight day and practiced at the indoor stadium of Northern Arizona University.
The problem between Dockett and Brown started when Dockett was on top of guard (G) Alex Faneca and reached out to trip quarterback (QB) Matt Leinart, who threw the ball down in disgust from what he saw his teammate trying to do.
Brown and Dockett then began going at it in a shoving match, which yields the question, healthy emotional football spirit or immature unsportsmanlike conduct? Coach Ken Whisenhunt sure saw the positive in all of it.
“It was nice to see guys getting after it,'' he said, "but that's typical of being in full pads the first day. The emotions were running high.”
Whisenhunt was also very pleased with Brown demonstrating that he can stand up for his teammates and his quarterback in particular.
"You're looking for guys to develop that bond or that kind of territorialism to protect their guy,'' the coach said, "and that was good.''
Dockett himself was very pleased with Brown’s reaction. Brown is usually very mild-mannered but showed some fire in the incident, something of which Dockett commended Brown for.
“I'm proud of him,'' Dockett said. "That's what I expect him to do. I pat him on his back and at the end of the day that's my child, that's my family.''
Dockett also claimed that he fell on top of Faneca after knocking him over. It was also the second day in a row that Dockett had knocked Leinart down.
"I swiped my hand and hit Matt in the ankles,'' Dockett said. "That was kind of dumb. I shouldn't have done that. But you get caught in the battle, the engine turns on, you really don't think about it until after the fact.''
The other confrontation in the play between Porter and Cody Brown, stemmed from the same incident as Porter was angry at Brown for reacting so passively, claiming those habits can carry into a game.
Dockett went on to say that you’ve got to be into training camp 100% because despite everybody being teammates, it’s all about preparing your body and mind for the season.
“You can't come out here and go 80 percent and expect to win our third divisional title," Dockett said. “It just don't happen like that. Every day we step on the field we've got to go harder and harder and harder. We've got to treat them like they're the 49ers and they've got to treat us like we're the 49ers. That's the only way we're going to be able to compete.”
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