Seahawks fight! fight! fight! fight! fight!

There was a fight!

The big news from the Seahawks' second day of mandatory minicamp was a scuffle kerfuffle royal rumble between Richard Sherman and Phil Bates that ended in punches thrown (from the video, and I'm discounting whatever happened prior to the snap in question, it looks like Sherman is the instigator and Bates is the retaliator). From reports, the situation escalated when WR Bryan Walters fell hard going for a pass and Earl Thomas may have landed on him.

Here's one angle:

The offense didn't take kindly to this and the brouhaha was on. Sherman was reported to have been hollering at the offensive huddle before the ignition-play, and immediately took Bates' jersey over his head, hockey style, which brought his helmet flying off as well. Sherman with his best Happy Gilmore impression:

Of course, Bates didn't go down quite so easily.

Watch another angle here:

Both sides were hot for quite a while after the fight, but everyone seemed to be back onto the same page by the end of the practice session. This type of thing is commonplace and expected in NFL practices, and Pete Carroll's Always Compete mantra surely encourages players to walk that line between competitive and mad ("pissed off for greatness"). I'm not remotely concerned about the tempest and neither are the players, evidently, and in fact, it's a great sign of the intensity that both sides are playing with this early in the summer.

-- Bob Condotta breaks down the scuffle -- how it happened, and its aftermath: From Bob, Bryan Walters hurt his shoulder falling hard while diving for a pass. It appeared that Earl Thomas landed on him: "Offensive players complained loudly, the defensive players protested back. On the next play, Sherman was covering Bates in the slot and the two locked up running down the field, which then turned into punches — Bates appearing to deliver the first blow after Sherman’s helmet had come off. The players from both sides quickly joined in and broke things up. Still, emotions remained heated for a while."

--  Todd Dybas breaks down the Seahawks' heated Day 2 at minicamp: Said Earl Thomas: "Guys here are different. We’re never satisfied. We’re always trying to prove who we are. It always gets heated like this and you love it because the whole competition of everybody is raised. At the end of the day, we’re teammates. We kind of know each other well now, kind of get under each other’s skin. There’s going to be practices like that. You love practices like this because everybody is in it. Everybody’s trying to execute well. Everybody’s trying to prove the other person wrong."

-- John Boyle reports on how tempers flared at Seahawks minicamp: "Following the scuffle, Pete Carroll brought the whole team together to tell his team 'just to remember that we’re a family," according to receiver Paul Richardson."

-- Curtis Crabtree breaks it down: "Head coach Pete Carroll called a halt to practice soon after the incident and spoke to the team for close to five minutes before they resumed their workouts. Emotions were still damaged and players continued to angrily bark at each other for some time after the incident.  'Sometimes you get mad and you say stuff that you don't really mean,' Thomas said. 'But at the same time, we're all men out here. We're all alpha males and it happens like that sometimes.'"

Photos:

Photo Gallery - Minicamp Day Two: Seahawks.com

Seattle Seahawks minicamp | Photo gallery - HeraldNet.com

Other notes:

-- Anthony McCoy on 1090 The Fan: ‘It Feels Good To Be Out There’ " CBS Seattle: Seattle Seahawks tight end Anthony McCoy spoke with Steve, Bill and Jason Wednesday before mini-camp practice.

-- Paul Richardson Minicamp Press Conference" Seahawks second round selection in the 2014 NFL Draft Paul Richardson talks with the media following the second day of Minicamp practice at VMAC.

-- Luke Wilson talked to Bob and Groz:

-- Doug Baldwin talks to Ian and Puck:

O'Brien Schofield: