Packer Central

Zach Tom Got Kicked Out of Packers-Seahawks Practice; Here’s Why

Tempers boiled over during the Green Bay Packers’ joint practice against the Seattle Seahawks. Zach Tom discussed his role in the biggest fight of the day.
Bill Huber|
Green Bay Packers offensive tackle Zach Tom
Green Bay Packers offensive tackle Zach Tom | Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers right tackle Zach Tom was thrown out of Thursday’s joint practice against the Seattle Seahawks for his role in the first of two fights between Green Bay’s offense and Seattle’s defense.

Tom’s beef was with linebacker Ernest Jones IV, who he said was in Green Bay’s offensive huddle.

“I think he was going after somebody else,” Tom said. “He was going after the ball-carrier. The play before that, it was a goal-line play and they were kind of going at it and he followed him into the huddle and he was all up in the huddle.”

According to Tom, Jones jumped “over the top of somebody and hit one of our guys. I just reacted after that.”

A full-blown fight ensued.

“That’s probably the worst one I’ve ever been involved in,” Tom said.

Tom took one swing at Jones, one swing at cornerback Devon Witherspoon and another at Jones. Jones fired one back at Tom as the sidelines cleared. This wasn’t the typical pushing and shoving that make up so many practice-field fights. Tight end Tucker Kraft tackled Witherspoon and a few players wound up on the ground.

“It’s already disrespectful that they’re in our huddle, and then somebody gets hit while we’re in the huddle, got to have some pride, you know?” Tom said.

There are two upsides to what happened. The first, Tom said, is it shows the team bond, no different than when most of the starters on offense ran a lap after Rasheed Walker was punished for a scuffle with Kingsley Enagbare earlier in camp.

“I saw the video,” Tom said with a laugh. “I saw Tucker, he got in there and Messiah (Swinson) got in there. It was pretty much the whole offense got in there. It’s cool to know that everybody’s got each other’s back. Obviously, maybe it would be better if we found that out in different ways (laughs). But, it is what it is.”

The second is Tom might have lost his cool but he didn’t lose his critical-thinking skills. Tom said he struck the Seahawks players with an open fist.

“Yeah, just push the helmet. No closed fists,” he said. “They’re probably still going to fine me.”

For joint-practice fights, the NFL can fine teams but not players. If the league could fine players, Tom said he’d appeal.

“And they better have all the film; not just my part,” he said.

There was a second fracas involving Green Bay’s offense and Seattle’s defense, though not to the same extent. Swinson got involved in both. The Packers’ defense and Seahawks’ offense also got into a bit of a scuffle.

“You’re just trying to protect your teammates, man,” Swinson said. “Trying to make sure nobody gets hurt, trying to make sure nothing else happens more than just a little scuffle. It’s just football at the end of the day, it’s nothing personal. Everybody is out there trying to fight for jobs, so sometimes a little bit extra that you don’t mean to happen happens. But it’s just football at the end of the day. It’s just a game.”

Fights in joint practices are relatively commonplace. The Packers were involved in fights in Cincinnati in 2023 and Denver in 2024 but not last week at Indianapolis. As cornerback Keisean Nixon said, “There’s too many alphas on the field” for tempers to not get out of control.

“As a team, things happen and you’ve got guys throwing punches at another guy, that’s the part of the team which you love to see,” quarterback Jordan Love said. “Guys got to have each other’s back out there, and we’re not going to let one of our guys go out there and get beat up at all. You hate to see it, but you love to see the team have each other’s back.”

After practice, both teams huddled together. When the huddles broke, several Packers players walked toward the Seahawks. This one was all huffing and puffing before cooler heads prevailed.

“I didn’t appreciate in general them coming to our sideline while practice is over and we already broke the huddle,” Seahawks defensive end Leonard Williams said. “Our guys are on our side, their guys are on their side, and people were coming over. It’s hard with these joint practices because stuff like that always happens. You don’t want it to happen, but it just happens. We try to avoid it as much as possible. Yeah, I didn’t appreciate it.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.