PRO FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : RAIDERS : Patterson, Stanton Involved in Tussle

The Raiders, tired of fighting the Phoenix Cardinals, picked on each other Friday in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Veteran cornerback Elvis Patterson got into a shoving match with defensive backs coach Jack Stanton during the morning workout at Northern Arizona University’s Walkup Skydome.

Patterson didn’t attend the afternoon practice and, according to a team statement, was sent home.

In the morning, Patterson and Stanton argued, then started scuffling. Before they could be restrained by the other players and coaches, Patterson, 31, had body-slammed Stanton, 54, to the artificial turf.

Cardinal coaches, stunned by the incident, encouraged Stanton as he walked away from the fray. “Western P-A,” Cardinal Coach Joe Bugel, a native of Pittsburgh, shouted to Stanton, of Bridgeville, Pa.

Stanton shrugged and said: “Don’t mess with me . . . “ Then, Stanton went into an on-the-field meeting with his boss, Coach Art Shell.

Patterson, meanwhile, met with Steve Ortmayer, the team’s director of football operations and special-teams coach. “I’ll talk about anything else, but I won’t talk about that (fight),” Shell said. Patterson and Stanton also declined comment.

Shell was upset Thursday when 14 fights broke out between the Raiders and the Cardinals during their two-a-day workouts. During one of those fights, Bugel took a punch under his left eye and suffered a small scrape.

“I didn’t think anyone would push me, the authority position I’m in,” Bugel said with a smile. “I learned.”

Shell and Bugel talked to their teams Friday morning about avoiding fights, and there were no skirmishes until the Patterson-Stanton fracas.

The teams were forced to work indoors for the second day in a row. It didn’t rain Friday morning, but Thursday’s downpour had left the field unplayable.

“Going out on the field looks good to the naked eye, but if we went out there, people would be slipping and sliding,” Shell said. “We already have a couple of people banged up with groin pulls. We didn’t need anyone else to get hurt on the wet field.”

The three-day joint workouts will conclude today with a controlled scrimmage in the dome.