Bucs fans will even more interested in next week’s Hard Knocks episode as Tampa Bay practiced with the New York Jets on Wednesday. It was already going to be covered since the Jets are this year’s team for the show, but the storylines got way more intriguing considering the amount of fights that took place in practice.

By Pewter Report’s X account and along with many other media members in attendance, there were about six different skirmishes between Bucs and Jets players. They ranged from your typical pushing and shoving with quick separation, to pure rage with screaming where multiple players were needed to separate two guys.

The Most Surprising Bucs Fights

I would be shocked if I didn’t see it with my own eyes, but the players that was doing the latter was Bucs team captain Lavonte David. This was a rare moment of David getting chippy with an opponent, getting very emotional and displaying a fiery passion.

Bucs ILB Lavonte David – Photo by: Matt Matera

David was part of two fights, while rookie nickel cornerback Josh Hayes also had his helmet ripped off and Luke Goedeke got into skirmish with talented Jets’ edge rusher Jermaine Johnson. It almost felt like after each play something else was going to happen things to escalate.

Year in and year out the Bucs have had joint practices. Mike Evans has been through a lot of them going into his 10th season, but even he’s never seen so many fights in a day.

“That was the most fights I’ve ever seen,” Evans said. “I don’t know if its because were going against them in practice for one day or what, but this is the most I’ve ever seen in a joint practice and I’ve seen a lot of joint practices in my career. But they were quick.”

Lavonte David Weighs In….Sort Of

Lavonte David was asked about the two big events that he got into, but elected to comment on the general outlook of the Bucs’ practice instead.

“Going against a different football team, different look, turned out pretty well,” David said. “Guys locking in, communicating, and seeing something different. It kind of turned out the way we needed it to, but we’ve got to go back to the film and watch it on our own and see how it goes from there.”

Todd Bowles Isn’t Happy About The Bucs’ Melees   

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Adam Slivon/PR

While Jets coach Robert Saleh had no problem with the all of the scuffles, Todd Bowles wasn’t in love with it.

“Don’t like the scuffling or anything like that,” Bowles said. “That’s not what it’s about. It ramps up and it continues in special teams and it kind of gets overheated. You really don’t want that in the game. We don’t teach it, I know Robert doesn’t teach it as well. Try to keep it to a minimum, at the end of the day everybody’s just trying to push people around. One doesn’t want to get punched, one doesn’t want to throw a punch.”

But for someone who carries a lot of weight in the organization like David to get involved? A player that for as great as he is has also been so even-keeled in his demeanor? Bowles didn’t have much of a reaction.

“In these joint practices everybody gets into the mix,” Bowles said. “You don’t want it in the game.”