DENVER — It didn’t take a $89.95 pay-per-view subscription to see a big-name feud Saturday night.
With Floyd Mayweather Jr. squaring up with Conor McGregor in the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in a “must watch” contest, there was another dustup brewing on the field at Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium in Denver just hours before.
In the second quarter of the Denver Broncos and Green Bay Packers preseason game, Todd Davis made a tackle on third down to force fourth down, then nearly got tackled himself. As he confronted the Packer attempting to bring him down to the ground after the play, Aqib Talib stepped in to calm down his linebacker.
“I tried to calm him down,” Talib said after the game. “He got into it with a guy on the field, and I just tried to calm him down.”
*Narrator voice* It didn’t calm him down.
Instead, the teammates turned on each other, not only causing a vicious war of words on the field, but pushing and shoving as the two defensive players exited the field following their defensive stop. Minutes later on the sideline, the jawing between the two continued with multiple teammates having to stand in between the heated Broncos.
Both Talib and Davis said the reason for the instant tension between the two was due to a “miscommunication” as Talib wanted to get Davis off the field to avoid an unnecessary penalty.
While Talib’s intention was on point, his delivery, at least in Davis’ eyes, hit a nerve. It was Talib’s use of strong words that “got” Davis to turn on his teammate.
“I’m very passionate when I feel that someone is trying to poach on me as a man. So I kind of fight back,” Davis said in the locker room after the game. “But with Aqib we are brothers. Sometimes you may fight with your brother, you may fight with your family, but at the end of the day you squash that because you are brothers and you move on.”
Just like Mayweather—McGregor, this feud ended before anyone hit the ground. And much like a family, it took the father figure to finally “squash” the kerfuffle.
“Well, Vance came to talk to me,” Davis said when asked what finally made him calm down. “That’s the head man, when he says you calm down, you kind of calm down.”
But it’s the fiery passion that fueled the exchange between the two teammates that will ultimately make Denver’s defense one of the best in the league, according to Davis.
“We thrive off of our passion,” he said. “We are going to come after you. If we are able to fuss and fight with our brothers, just imagine what you are going to get from us.”
Standing on opposite sides of the locker room, purely due to locker location, Talib and Davis both gave the verbal “all good” after the game, putting to rest any tension between the two based on a simple miscommunication fueled by passionate players.
Davis may have sparked another fight for the future, however with his postgame comments. When asked how his shoulder felt—after missing time during training camp with a sprained shoulder—Davis said, “It feels great.”
“I feel like I might have won that fight against Floyd [Mayweather],” he said. “Floyd vs. Me, I might have won.”
Joseph had no problem stepping in between Davis and Talib to calm the two down. Davis may not have the same luck if he ever tries to take on the 50-0 Mayweather.
