More fights break out at Patriots camp

FOXBORO -- Two days after a training camp fight broke out before 22,000 fans inside Gillette Stadium, there were two more battles on Friday. Coach Bill Belichick sent the team, along with members of the coaching staff, to run three laps around the field as punishment.

The first fight involved linebacker Bobby Carpenter and lineman Ryan Wendell and two incidents followed moments later. Belichick spoke to the team after the laps and quarterback Tom Brady called for a players-only huddle.

"It's the same stuff it always is," Carpenter said after Friday's practice. "It's guys trying to go all the way through the whistle and things get a little heated and one thing leads to another and before you know it, there's 60 guys out there. But Coach Belichick talked to us. Hopefully, that won't happen again. We can't be fighting ourselves. We have to be working to improve."

That scrum, which also featured Patrick Chung and Rob Ninkovich at the bottom, was the first of three incidents. Moments later, Dane Fletcher and Donald Thomas threw their arms and elbows at each other after getting entangled during a running play. The final fight involved backups, as defensive lineman Brandon Deaderick got into it with offensive lineman Darrion Weems. Belichick then interceded and told the players he had seen enough and sent them off to laps.

"There were a few choice words in there," Carpenter said of Belichick's disciplinary message at the end of the penalty laps. "But that was the general message... Competition is good, fighting is not. There's a fine line between taking it to the whistle and taking it a little bit beyond. As it goes every year, as it gets hotter and camp gets longer, we're in about nine, 10 days now, guys start getting a little irritated, agitated and things get a little hot sometimes but fortunately, that's what those laps are for, to cool us off.

"That's the first time I've done three laps probably since high school so that definitely was a surprise for me."

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