Two Washington Football Team defensive linemen — Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne — got into a fight during the game against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night. NBC cameras spotted Allen and Payne fighting on the sidelines as the team was losing to their division rivals. Payne appeared to have stuck his fingers in Allen’s face as the two were arguing. That led to Allen throwing a punch at Payne before the two were separated by teammates and staff. Washington would go on to lose the game 56-14.
After the game, Payne talked to reporters about the incident. “Just a little brotherly disagreement; maybe the wrong place, wrong time, but it happened,” Payne said, per ESPN. Payne did not reveal what promoted the argument and said everything is good between them now. He asked, “You got brothers? You all fight don’t you? S— happens.”
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Allen also downplayed the fight. “I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist,” Allen said. “If you look at how that game went, emotions are high, things are high, things happen.” Allen and Payne know each other very well as both played together at the University of Alabama. Washington drafted Allen in the first round in 2017. The team then drafted Payne in the first round in 2018.
“I talked with them, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s where it’s going to stay,” Washington head coach Ron Rivera said. “What my players say to me is nobody’s business.” Washington has lost the last three games and has multiple players on the reserve/COVID-19 list. The team also played the game on a short week as they took on the Philadelphia Eagles Tuesday. It’s clear Washington is frustrated with how things are going as the team is looking to reach the playoffs.
“Well, more so than anything else, we’ve got to games left to play, and we’re going to play them to win, Rivera said when asked what his message to the team was after the loss, per Washington Football Wire. “That’s just the way it is. I told them, I said, ‘If you play this game long enough, you’re going to get beat like this. It happens. How you respond to it, how you bounce back, how you play, that tells more about who you are than anything else.”
