IRVING, Texas - With a short week before Thursday's game with the Raiders, there isn't much time to be looking backward on the Cowboys' 7-6 win over Washington last Sunday.
But one incident that was reviewed here Monday was the sideline argument involving cornerback Terence Newman and secondary coach Dave Campo.
The Fox TV cameras caught the first-quarter altercation on the Cowboys sideline, showing Newman and Campo jawing face-to-face with some shoving involved. Newman bumped into Campo with his chest after the assistant coach apparently tried to stop the cornerback from walking away from him.
"He was coming off the field and I was trying to stop him from keeping going and he thought I grabbed him," Campo said after the game. "He just kind of bowed up . . . then it was a grab. But we were all a little upset. No harm, no foul."
Newman declined to speak to reporters following the game.
On Monday, head coach Wade Phillips downplayed the incident when asked by the media during his scheduled press conference.
"We try to get everything straightened out on the sidelines and there are a lot of different ways to do it," said Phillips, who was obviously annoyed by the line of questioning. "It's our team and those things are with us. The sidelines are, people are invading the sidelines now. These things have been going on for a long time in football. Players get upset, coaches get upset, sometimes you get upset with each other, sometimes you're just trying to talk to each other. So there are a lot of things that go on that we get worked out, and that's what we did.''
When asked, Phillips said that Newman's actions towards an assistant coach is deemed "normal behavior."
"There wasn't anything big that happened that made a difference," Phillips said. "We worked out what we had to work out on the sideline, and that's what we normally do. And that's what happens with a lot of teams a lot of times."
Newman is the veteran leader of a cornerback position that includes two second-year pros in Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick, along with third-year pro Alan Ball, who is now playing more safety in place of Ken Hamlin. The Cowboys also re-signed four-year veteran Cletis Gordon, who had played one game with the team this year.
Campo, a former head coach of the Cowboys (2000-02), rejoined the staff last season as the defensive backs coach. He had been an assistant with the Cowboys from 1989 to 1999 before becoming head coach.
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