Nothing soaks panties and tightens belts on the sidelines of an NFL training camp more than football brawls. The meaner and nastier, the better. There's a saying amongst coaches that goes something like "Training Camp hasn't officially gotten underway until a fight has broken out", but they're usually talking about between teammates. After a cordial day between the Chargers and Cowboys in yesterday's scrimmage, today's scrimmage got a little nasty.

Not surprising but very chippy practice between Chargers D & Cowboys offense. They're going after it. I'm learning some new words — Marty Caswell (@MartyCaswell) August 21, 2012

And we have a real practice fight. Melvin Ingram in the middle of it. Football equivalent of bench clearing — Scott Bair (@NCTchargers) August 21, 2012

Ingram no commented about the tussle, but cowboys TE ripped his helmet off and swung it at him. Escalated quickly after that. — Scott Bair (@NCTchargers) August 21, 2012

After seeing the rest of the tweets, it was easy to figure that "Cowboys TE" was rookie Andrew Szczerba. Another tweet from Michael Gehlken says that Szczerba's helmet swing "just missed" hitting Ingram. Who knows what type of damage he may have caused had he connected, but it wouldn't have been very good.

Reports are that after the rookie TE's attempted murder (I kid), the rest of the Chargers defense put Szczerba on his back. On the next play, Quentin Jammer (who, I'm glad to say, is practicing after being injured on Saturday) laid out a Cowboys player on the goal line and kept the animosity high for a little while longer. Maybe this fight, and the team's response, is what the defense needed. Or maybe it changes nothing.