Camps get chippy in August, but the tone shifts when the franchise QB1 is touched, or even bumped, in a live 11-on-11 period. Ted Karras put it bluntly after practice: the Bengals “liked the fire”, but there’s a line around Joe Burrow that teammates and rookies alike are expected to treat like a red jersey forcefield. That line was crossed on Wednesday, and it set off a scene that rippled through both trenches.

The flashpoint arrived early in a 30-minute scrimmage block, when the offense and defense rushed into a scrum after the first play, a quick ignition that hinted at more than routine camp testosterone. Shemar Stewart , the first-round edge who just settled his holdout and has been under a microscope all month, has been billed as a tone-setter for an overhauled defense,

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