‘That’s football:’ Riders not fussed about in practice scrap

“That’s football.”

That’s the message from the Saskatchewan Roughriders after it came out that star receiver Duron Carter and defensive back Sam Williams got into a scrap during practice on Monday.

“(Fighting) is not something that we absolutely condone, but it’s going to be something that happens,” said head coach Chris Jones. “So if you’ve got a team that’s not willing to go after one another and play aggressive then you probably go the wrong guys.”

The news about the fight came out late Monday afternoon when Carter sent out a cryptic tweet that had fans concerned he had been released from the team and was saying goodbye.

It was fun while it lasted… love y'all

— Duron Carter (@DC_CHILLIN_8) October 16, 2017

But Carter said what he meant was he’d “been having a lot of fun out here so hopefully I can have more fun.”

“(There’s) no telling what’s going on in football these days, so I’m just glad to be here,” he added.

Carter declined to go into details about what caused the fight, stating simply that it’s “some football stuff.”

“That’s how it goes down,” he continued. “Guys get heated and words are said and then it’s punches I guess.”

Defensive back Jovon Johnson ventured to get out ahead of the story Monday night on Twitter and tweeted that it was Williams who did something unacceptable.

He expanded on that in person on Tuesday.

“The quarterbacks and the receivers do something once they break down from individual (drills) and Sam just got in the middle of what they were doing and it just kind of flared the situation,” Johnson explained.

And it didn’t seem to concern the head coach at all, who added there was another altercation in practice on Tuesday as well.

“We’re not going to sit here and harp on something that was blown up, quite honestly, on Twitter,” Jones said. “Football is a violent sport. We practice hard, there’s going to be altercations and that’s the end of the story. That’s it.”

But there were still no answers to one of the most troubling reports from TSN’s Dave Naylor and Sportsnet’s Arash Madani that said a coach had encouraged Williams and Carter to fight.

Can confirm incident at Saskatchewan practice Monday involved at least one coach encouraging Duron Carter and Sam Williams to fight. #Riders

— David William Naylor (@TSNDaveNaylor) October 17, 2017

When asked, Carter did not want to answer the question.

“You can’t really get into that because either way, I answer it’ll be allegedly, so I’m just not going to touch that question,” he said.

Jones remained similarly tight-lipped about it.

“We’re not going to mention anything else other than we got through saying: that there are altercations at football practices and that’s what happened. It’s a violent sport and that’s what went on so that’s all the details we’re giving about it,” he said.

The coach also declined to expand on if any players would be receiving any discipline over Monday’s events or state if Carter would be in the lineup on Friday when the Riders play the Stampeders.

“Our roster will be decided later in the week,” Jones said.