WFT’s Jonathan Allen, Daron Payne fight in Cowboys loss
Emotions got the best of two WFT players that came to blows during Sunday night’s 56-14 blowout loss to the Cowboys.
Defensive linemen Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne had to be separated by fellow teammates after Allen threw at punch Payne on the bench during the second quarter.
The two, who were also college teammates at Alabama, were captured on NBC cameras in a heated exchange before Payne appeared to poke his finger at Allen’s head.
“I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist,” said Allen, a team captain, about what sparked the scuffle.
“If you look at how that game went, emotions are high, things are high, things happen.”
The sideline altercation took place after a 75-yard touchdown drive by Dallas, early in the second quarter. It was Dallas’ third consecutive touchdown drive.
Things did not escalate after Allen and Payne were separated. Both players continued the game on the next series.
After the loss, Payne said the drama was “just a little brotherly disagreement; maybe the wrong place, wrong time, but it happened… S–t happens.”
Allen also downplayed the incident, telling reporters, “Brothers fight.”
“When something happens on the field, you never let it carry into the locker room,” he said. “Things get heated, we fix them, we sit down as grown men and we move on.”
Washington head coach Ron Rivera said he didn’t hear about the drama until after the game.
“I’ve talked to both of them,” Rivera said, adding that those conversations are “nobody’s business.”
Allen had expressed his frustration over the team’s poor play in a loss to the Eagles just last week.
“We got our ass kicked… I don’t think we did anything well when you give up however many yards we did on the ground. They were just the better team,” Allen said after the loss to Philadelphia on Tuesday night. “In the NFL, you get paid to handle adversity. It is what it is. We can bitch and moan about COVID. Nobody cares. It really doesn’t matter. If we do our job, we win the game today. We didn’t do our job and we got embarrassed.”
And they did so again against another NFC East rival in Dallas. Washington (6-9) has now lost three straight games and will play host to the Eagles next Sunday.
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