Football is a contact sport, and it's not uncommon for tensions to run high on the field. It's not even that uncommon for tensions to boil over between teammates and result in a fight, especially during training camp.

Even the defending champion Patriots are not immune. Patriots mainstay Julian Edelman got in a bit of a scrap with newcomer Stephon Gilmore at practice Tuesday and both players were thrown out of practice by Bill Belichick, according to several reporters on scene.

Here's a photo of the incident, via WCVB-TV in Boston.

There are more here, via Instagram:

#Patriots WR @edelman11 sent off #PatsCamp field after getting into it with Stephon Gilmore. #patriots #nfl #trainingcamp #foxborough #pats #fight A post shared by Shaun Ganley (@eltiempo10) on Aug 1, 2017 at 8:17am PDT

Gilmore, of course, is a former Patriots rival. He spent the first five years of his career as a member of the Buffalo Bills, where he squared off with the Patriots twice a year. That probably didn't factor into his tete-a-tete with Edelman (sometimes long-time teammates duke it out at practice, too), and we can probably assume that nothing about this will linger into the season. This stuff just happens.

It has even happened with the Patriots before. Belichick kicked Malcolm Butler out of an inter-squad practice with the Bears last year for fighting with Alshon Jeffery. All that happened at the end of that season was the Pats won the Super Bowl. So it's probably not a big deal.