That’s how the first brawl started. Claiborne felt as if Rivera lowered his shoulder to try to break a tackle so he responded by throwing Rivera to the ground.
That raised the ire of Raiders receiver Greg Little, who came flying in to protect his teammate, leading to the fight on the sideline in front of a boisterous group of Raiders fans.
Players even ran over from the other field to get involved before everything was broken up.
“When I came to the sideline, guys were still talking about it and talking about how it amped them up,” Claiborne said. “It should have happened a little earlier in practice and maybe we would have gotten a little more noise out here.”
This was a homecoming of sorts for the Raiders, who held training camp at this exact site from 1985-95.
Celebrities such as Magic Johnson and Tommy Lasorda even came out for festivities.
The Raiders had many fans from their time in Los Angeles on hand and officials were extra careful to keep the two teams’ supporters on opposite sides of the field.
The Raiders fans seemed to outnumber the Cowboys supporters and there were derogatory chants from both sides and a chant from Raiders fans of “Bring them back! Bring them back!” in hopes of a possible return to Los Angeles.
“It’s a reality check for all the new guys who thought they knew what the Raider nation was all about,” Raiders fullback Marcel Reece said. “They’d heard the stories and put on the jersey one time for a preseason game, and it’s a reality check for them. They have no idea what it is, and they come here to another team’s training camp and they out-show their fans.”
The teams will hold another joint practice on Wednesday.
(Photo: AP)
Like BlackAmericaWeb.com on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.
