ANDERSON, Ind. -- The Indianapolis Colts have had two scuffles in practice so far in training camp. One of the scuffles led to center Jonotthan Harrison and defensive lineman Kelcy Quarles being thrown out of practice by coach Chuck Pagano last weekend.
Those two fights -- or many others around the NFL so far -- were nothing compared to what happened with the New York Jets earlier this week. Jets starting quarterback Geno Smith is out 6-10 weeks with a broken jaw suffered when now-former teammate IK Enemkpali punched him.
"It's camp, so tempers are going to flare," Colts linebacker D'Qwell Jackson said. "But typically if something happens in practice, it's not carried on to the locker room. I don't know what happened with that particular situation but it is unfortunate, it is your quarterback. He is out six to 10 weeks they are reporting and your quarterback is everything. You have to protect him. If your team isn't protecting him, he is pretty much on his own.
"I was in Cleveland for eight years and tempers have flared once before with the quarterback or not. Things happen and you've got to be mature on both standpoints and both guys have to understand that it's not worth it. Now the Jets are missing two players that could help that team. It's an unfortunate situation."
The Colts routinely do a good job of policing themselves. They've had a relatively close locker room under Pagano. The Colts have an internal policy they turn to if needed for a fight or any other incident that needs to be addressed.
"It wouldn't escalate that far because we have guys here that will step in between the guys if something is going on," defensive tackle Art Jones said. "We're going to keep policing each other and make sure things like that doesn't escalate to the locker room or whatever situation that may be. We have great veteran leaders on this team."
