Cowboys, Saints hit with heavy fines following joint practice brawls

There are two things about the trend of joint practices that remain somewhat baffling.

The first is that they are even still allowed given how chaotic they become and how quickly they devolve into chaos. The NFL could easily put a stop to all of it by simply not allowing them. 

The second is why teams are even still interested in doing them.

In theory, the idea behind them makes some sense. It is an opportunity for your players to line up against another team and give players (and especially young players) reps against players who are really trying to stop them. It gives them different looks, different approaches and something that more closely resembles a game.

There is something to be taken from that.

But it's also very likely that teams are not running anything close to their actual system or what they will be running in games. 

Even worse, there is the danger of what happens when emotions start to run high, which they inevitably will. Whether it is a game, a practice, a scrimmage, a joint practice or whatever else you want to call it, football is an intense, physical game, played by the most competitive people on the planet. It is going to get out of control, and there won't be any consequences or punishment for anything that resembles a late hit, a cheap shot or any sort of penalty. It's almost like giving people a free shot at other players and a free opportunity to fight. 

The NFL is not going to suspend or penalize players for what happens in these practices, and that can create a very dangerous situation. The worst example of this was a few years ago when the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals brawled to the point that Aaron Donald was swinging around multiple Bengals helmets. 

Brawls are bad enough. It is only going to get worse and should make teams second guess it even more if (or when) a player gets injured in one of these.