Aaron Donald gets into skirmish in first joint-practice with Raiders

The Los Angeles Rams were back in action for their second day of joint-practices with the LAs Vegas Raiders. After Cam Akers and Maxx Crosby got into a fight on Wednesday, tensions boiled over into Thursday’s practice as well. Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald returned to the field after a “rest day” on Wednesday. According to reports, Donald got into it with Raiders offensive lineman Netane Muti.

According to Levi Damien of The Raiders Wire, Donald and Muti “got into it” after the first snap of the pass rush drills.

Donald has a history of being in the middle of these situations during joint-practices. It’s fair to wonder if that’s part of the reason why the Rams held him out of the first practice on Wednesday and called it a “rest day”.

Last season, Donald was in the middle of a controversy after swinging his helmet at Cincinnati Bengals players. The Rams defensive lineman got into previously with the Raiders when the team’s practiced together in 2019.

At the time, Donald said,

“It’s football, man. Honestly, every joint practice I’ve ever been a part of, there’s always a fight. The way things happened yesterday, how physical it was, I was pretty sure it was going to come back and be a lot of BS.”

Things like this should be expected during joint-practices, especially with how Donald approaches them. When the helmet goes on, Donald goes at full speed. However, when the helmet is off, you get fun moments like the one captured below by The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue.

The Rams and Raiders are practicing together for the final time on Thursday before they play each other in Week 2 of the preseason on Saturday.