Watch the chaotic Aaron Donald, Rams vs. Bengals practice brawl

The image of Aaron Donald wielding two Cincinnati helmets highlighted a joint-practice brawl between the Rams and the Bengals.

Joint practices in the NFL often feature scuffles between the two teams as competitive passions run high. Hell, shoving matches happen all the time between teammates in non-joint practices as well.

It’s just not every day an all-out brawl breaks out quite like the one that happened on Thursday between the Rams and the Bengals.

Aaron Donald became the focal point of it all when video emerged of the Rams defensive lineman swinging not one, but two Bengals helmets down into a crowd of players before being shoved over.

Aaron Donald smacked Bengals with their own helmets in practice brawl

According to Sarah Barshop of ESPN, Donald was scheduled to appear in front of the media but did not after all the chaos.

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor did talk to the media after and passed it off as “emotions running high.”

He didn’t make a big deal of Donald’s helmet swinging.

“You just want to make sure everyone is healthy and I think everyone is healthy so we’ll move on,” Taylor said.

The images are striking and the temptation will be to view this as another piece of Donald lore. But it’s also unacceptable behavior for a veteran and future Hall of Famer.

Myles Garrett was suspended six games for swinging a helmet at an opponent during a game. What happens in practice will always be taken less seriously. However, the action is just as dangerous whether on a practice field or in a stadium.

There isn’t a lot of precedent for something like this happening during a practice, so we’ll have to wait and see if the NFL steps in to hand down any sort of punishment.