Quarterbacks usually stay out of the fray when fights break out on the football field, but Falcons starting quarterback Michael Penix was right in the middle of it when he and his teammates brawled with the Titans today.
Reporters on the scene described a melee that saw Penix surrounded by players on both teams, with Titans players getting in his face and Falcons players defending him. Penix acknowledged that he was involved in the trash talk that got tempers heated.
“Threw a deep pass, they had a lot of words throughout practice so I gave them my words, and just went a little too far,” Penix said.
Penix said he appreciated his teammates having his back.
“I’m glad they did, because obviously that’s not something that we want to be doing in practice,” Penix said. “We want to get all reps in, get that good work in. But it went how it went. But to see the team have my back and they were there, make sure they protect me. A lot of guys asked me if I was good, and it was good to know that those guys have got my back.”
Penix said everything was so chaotic that he wasn’t sure precisely where he was in the midst of it all.
“I don’t know where I was at in it,” Penix said. “It was a lot of people. I knew I was down there somewhere. I wasn’t the only one, though.”
Penix said he prefers to do his talking with his play, but he also has never been the type to back down.
“I like to compete, and I don’t really do too much talking until somebody says something to me and maybe I’ll want to, ‘OK, I threw a touchdown, now what y’all talking about,’” Penix said. “And then I guess not everybody takes that the right way. I think that’s all it was. They probably looked at me as just the quarterback, I wasn’t that type of person. But I’m from Tampa. I’m from Dade City. I’m from Tampa, it’s a respect part about it. We’re all playing, we’re all competing at a high level, but when disrespect comes in, it’s like, ‘All right, this ain’t football no more.’ That’s when it turns into what it is.”
Penix said he never wants to start a fight but it’s part of the game.
“We should respond the right way, not whatever that was out there, but it’s football,” Penix said. “Things happen.”
