The Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers held a joint practice yesterday that spanned from friendliness to violence over the course of a few hours.It began as the Seahawks joined the Packers for their ‘bike tradition’. The Packers invited the Seahawks to join them in the tradition of riding children’s bikes to the practice field. It was an excellent photo opportunity for the team as all visuals of players talking to and riding with kids give them a gentler image than the preconceived notions of a football player in society.The Athletic’s Michael-Shawn Dugar posted this video on Twitter:
Greetings from Green Bay, where Seahawks players are riding kids’ bikes to the practice field. Here’s Sam Darnold, Drew Lock, Jalen Milroe and others heading into joint practice with the kids. pic.twitter.com/M0zdBC9eNY
— Dugar, Michael-Shawn (@MikeDugar) August 21, 2025
Inviting the Seahawks for the bike tradition was a wonderful idea by the Packers. It humanized the larger-than-life NFL stars and started the event off on a happy note for all involved. However, the warm-hearted feelings vanished quickly as soon as practice got underway. Reports of physicality dominated the headlines as soon as team periods began.Then, during the team run period, the tension boiled over:
We got a benches clearing fight in team red zone period. Ken walker scored then it just got physical and folks ended up on the ground.
Once that got cleared up, looks like an identical looking fight broke out on the far field with the Seahawks defense and packers offense.
— Dugar, Michael-Shawn (@MikeDugar) August 21, 2025
The far-field fight Dugar is referencing was the punches-thrown brawl between Packers guard Zach Tom and Seahawks defenders Ernest Jones IV and Devon Witherspoon. Tom was ejected, but the Seahawks defense and Packers offense got into another fight roughly 10 minutes later. See the videos and read more about the fights here.Fights are a (relatively) common occurrence among NFL joint practices. The added physicality of practicing against a different-color jersey brings risks, but the aggression and vitriol between the sidelines is intrinsic to football’s nature itself. Modern science suggests less padded practices are optimal for long-term safety. But the less they have, the more vital each one becomes as the men behind the facemasks prepare for mental, spiritual and physical warfare.Thursday’s joint practice came with the individual goal of setting the tone- and despite the ugly ending, the Seahawks definitely did so. Identity is key to a defensive-minded, run-first team, and Seattle is wearing it proudly. While we don’t have practice film to evaluate the football that was played, one thing was loud and clear- the men in the locker room were willing to go to war for each other.
This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks-Packers joint practice starts with bikes and ends in brawl