Washington's Payne: Sideline fight with Allen was 'a little brotherly disagreement'

The Washington Football Team suffered one of its most embarrassing losses in recent memory on Sunday night to the Dallas Cowboys, and a sideline altercation between defensive tackles Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne was a low point for the NFC East club.

Dallas had just scored its third straight touchdown early in the second quarter when the two Washington teammates appeared to be arguing on benches.

Payne then jabbed a finger into the side of Allen's head. Allen stood up and took a swing at Payne, forcing Washington players and coaches to separate the two defensive linemen several times.

"I don't think it takes a rocket scientist," Allen said about why it started, according to ESPN's John Keim. "If you look at how that game went, emotions are high, things are high, things happen."

Payne also declined to divulge what was specifically said to spark the confrontation. Allen and Payne were also teammates with Alabama for three campaigns.

"Just a little brotherly disagreement; maybe the wrong place, wrong time, but it happened," Payne said.

Head coach Ron Rivera said the recent losing streak and player losses due to COVID-19 and injuries have caused frustrations among the team and likely led to a boiling point between Allen and Payne.

The Cowboys, who clinched the NFC East earlier in the day thanks to a strength-of-schedule tiebreaker, went on to earn a 56-14 blowout win and severely hurt their arch rival's playoff chances.

Washington has fallen to 6-9 with its third straight defeat and now has just a 5% chance of securing a wild-card spot with two weeks of the regular season remaining, according to FiveThirtyEight.