Tempers flare in scrimmage

SPARTANBURG

Today’s second-to-last practice in

Spartanburg

was an interesting one. There was a minor fight between offensive tackle Rueben Riley and defensive tackle Nick Hayden in blocking drills. The shoving between the two was capped by Riley taking a boxing stance and popping a couple of left jabs at Hayden, and Hayden’s helmet coming off. The two were separated and no damage done.

            -- The practice also included a goal-line touchdown pass to backup center Geoff Hangartner, who caught the ball over Julius Peppers’ outstretched fingers on a lineman-eligible play. Then, despite linebacker Jon Beason telling him, “don’t do that,” Hangartner spiked the ball with a flourish.

            --Offensive and defensive players barked at each other after good plays for most of the afternoon, with the defenders led as usual by lineman Stanley McClover. One play that got the “D” stirred up was an interception of quarterback Jake Delhomme by linebacker Thomas Davis.

            --And in one of the rites of camp, following practice the defense taped six of its rookies—Charles Godfrey, Dan Connor, Nick Hayden, Casper Brinkley, Joe Fields and Shaun Smith—to a goalpost, wrapping them up in layers of athletic tape. The rest of the defense dumped bottles of sports drinks on them as they struggled to free themselves. Then the vets brought out the heavy artillery, dousing them with coolers of ice.

After that, the tape didn’t hold for long.

--On hand to see the workout was James Robert Kennedy, better known as “Radio,” and the man the movie of that name was based on. When defensive back Ken Lucas was introduced to him, he was asked if he knew who Kennedy was and said, “You’re Mr. Radio.”

STAN OLSON