Joe Burrow reportedly earned LSU teammates' respect after fight during practice

Joe Burrow's LSU teammates have had nothing but praise for the 2019 Heisman Trophy winner.

He helped lead the Tigers to a 15-0 record and a national championship last season. His teammates began to respect him because of a fight that broke out during a scrimmage.

Safety JaCoby Stevens "smoked" Burrow in the red zone according to Brody Miller of The Athletic. The offense was shredding the defense in practice, which led to the hit.

Burrow's helmet came off according to one LSU staffer. He reportedly jumped up, charged at Stevens and grabbed the safety by the face mask.

A brawl between the offense and defense followed. Everyone on the team reportedly participated except for guard Adrian Magee, who was drinking water on the sideline.

“Tory Carter comes in like a heat-seeking missile and takes somebody out, I can’t remember who,” one LSU staffer said.

Miller says a lot of Burrow's college teammates point to this moment as the time he first earned their respect.

“Joe didn’t back down, and JaCoby, I think, respected him after that,” one person said.

Even K’Lavon Chaisson was involved in the brawl. He wasn't practicing after tearing his ACL in 2018.

Stevens refutes some of the details. He said the hit on Burrow wasn't intentional and that he ran into him while trying to bat down a pass. Stevens also said that Burrow didn't grab him by the face mask.

To clear it up, I did not intentionally wrap up and tackle Joe. I went up to knock a pass down, and ran into him in the process. He also did not grab me by my face mask afterwards. BUT I still have a MUCH earned respect for the greatest college football player OF ALL TIME.
— JaCoby Stevens (@jacobystevens7) May 20, 2020

Brawls in practice happen, especially when a defense is sick of getting carved up by the eventual Heisman Trophy winner. Burrow's competitiveness is going to get under some of his teammates' skin in the heat of battle. If all goes well, it'll help the Bengals come together the same way it did for LSU last season.