FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. (AP) — Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. was surprised to find himself in the middle of a scuffle that interrupted his team's second joint practice with the Tennessee Titans on Wednesday.
After connecting with Ray-Ray McCloud III on a long touchdown pass, Penix said he was “celebrating” with comments he said were delivered in response to “words” from Tennessee players.
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Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Dylan Drummond (81) works out during a joint NFL football practice between the Atlanta Falcons and the Tennessee Titans, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, in Flowery Branch, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. (9) and Easton Stick (12) work out during a joint NFL football practice between the Atlanta Falcons and the Tennessee Titans, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, in Flowery Branch, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Tennessee Titans quarterback Cameron Ward warms up during a joint NFL football practice Wednesday between the Atlanta Falcons and the Tennessee Titans, Aug. 13, 2025, in Flowery Branch, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. works out during a joint NFL football practice between the Atlanta Falcons and the Tennessee Titans, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, in Flowery Branch, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
“I like to compete at a high level and when I compete I don’t really do too much talking,” Penix said. “So somebody say something to me and ... OK, I throw a touchdown. ‘Now what y’all talking about?’ And then I guess not everybody take that the right way. And I think that’s all it was.”
Penix was thrown to the ground by one or more Tennessee players. Penix ended up at the bottom of a pile of players. He said it was the first time he's been involved in an altercation like that on the field.
The scuffle came only hours after Falcons coach Raheem Morris commended players for competing in the first joint practice Tuesday “without all the foolish things” like fights on the field.
Tennessee players were critical of their inability to match the intensity of the Falcons' players in Wednesday's first joint practice. The visitors were determined to show more fire in the second joint practice.
“The team had a little scuffle going on, but after the scuffle we were still able to play football and keep that high intensity,” said Titans outside linebacker Arden Key.
The joint practices were staged at the Falcons' practice facility before the teams play a preseason game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Friday night.
Falcons quarterback coach D.J. Williams wasn't happy to see Penix, the second-year quarterback entering his first full season as the starter, at the bottom of the pile. “Obviously, you don't want that,” Williams said.
Williams said it was revealing to see how Penix's teammates rose to his defense.
“I take the positive out of it,” Williams said. “Like you saw the guys take up for him. And I think that speaks to his leadership and who he is in that locker room. ... Obviously he has the relationship and the trust of the guys because everybody ran to his defense. So I think that’s a good thing for the Falcons.”
Following the practice, Penix was still struggling to process the altercation.
“I don't know. I was somebody else,” Penix said.
Asked about being at the bottom of the pile, he said, “I don’t know where I was at in it. It was a lot of people in it. I know I was down there somewhere. I wasn’t the only one, though.”
Penix said he was appreciative “to see the team had my back and they were there to make sure they protect me. A lot of guys asked me if I was good.”
Morris said Penix will sit out the second straight preseason game. Backup Kirk Cousins also may be held out after the two split most of the snaps in team drills in the joint practices.
Titans coach Brian Callahan, who spoke before Wednesday's practice, said the same players who played in the team's 29-7 loss at Tampa Bay in last week's preseason opener likely will play against the Falcons. That list includes rookie starter Cam Ward, who played two series against the Buccaneers and was encouraged by the response to the team's disappointing Tuesday practice.
“Today's practice, we were a lot better,” Ward said.
Ward acknowledged his Wednesday practice wasn't perfect. He was picked off by Falcons safety Dee Alford after he was forced to scramble and then tried to throw the ball out of bounds.
“Just not putting enough on it,” Ward said.
Ward, the No. 1 overall pick in this year's NFL draft, said he already feels “I'd be fully prepared” to open the regular season this week.
The Titans claimed LB Brian Asamoah II off waivers from Minnesota and waived LB Otis Reese IV to make room. The 6-foot Asamoah was the No. 66 pick overall in the third round of the 2022 NFL draft, and he played in 46 games with the Vikings.
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Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Dylan Drummond (81) works out during a joint NFL football practice between the Atlanta Falcons and the Tennessee Titans, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, in Flowery Branch, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. (9) and Easton Stick (12) work out during a joint NFL football practice between the Atlanta Falcons and the Tennessee Titans, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, in Flowery Branch, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Tennessee Titans quarterback Cameron Ward warms up during a joint NFL football practice Wednesday between the Atlanta Falcons and the Tennessee Titans, Aug. 13, 2025, in Flowery Branch, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. works out during a joint NFL football practice between the Atlanta Falcons and the Tennessee Titans, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025, in Flowery Branch, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders worked into the night on Thursday, seeking to reassure Belgium that they would provide guarantees to protect it from Russian retaliation if it backs a massive loan for Ukraine. Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy meanwhile pleaded for a quick decision to keep Ukraine afloat in the new year.
At a summit in Brussels with high stakes for both the EU and Ukraine, leaders of the 27-nation bloc discussed how best to use tens of billions of euros in frozen Russian assets to underwrite a loan to meet Ukraine’s military and financial needs over the next two years.
The bulk of the assets — some 193 billion euros ($227 billion) as of September — are held in the Brussels-based financial clearing house Euroclear. Russia’s Central Bank launched a lawsuit against Euroclear last week.
“Give me a parachute and we’ll all jump together,” Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever told lawmakers ahead of the summit. “If we have confidence in the parachute that shouldn’t be a problem.”
Belgium fears that Russia will strike back and wants the bloc to borrow the money on international markets. It says frozen assets held in other European countries should be thrown into the pot as well, and that its partners should guarantee that Euroclear will have the funds it needs should it come under legal attack.
An estimated 25 billion euros ($29 billion) in Russian assets are frozen in banks and financial institutions in other EU countries, including France, Germany and Luxembourg.
The Russian Central Bank's lawsuit ramped up pressure on Belgium and its EU partners ahead of the summit.
The “reparations loan” plan would see the EU lend 90 billion euros ($106 billion) to Ukraine. Countries like the United Kingdom, which said Thursday it is prepared to share the risk, as well as Canada and Norway would help make up any shortfall.
Russia's claim to the assets would still stand, but the assets would remain locked away at least until the Kremlin ends its war on Ukraine and pays for the massive damage it caused.
In mapping out the loan plan, the European Commission set up safeguards to protect Belgium, but De Wever remained unconvinced and EU envoys were working late on Thursday to address his concerns.
Soon after arriving in Brussels, the Ukrainian president sat down with the Belgian prime minister to make his case for freeing up the frozen funds. The war-ravaged country is at risk of bankruptcy and needs new money by spring.
“Ukraine has the right to this money because Russia is destroying us, and to use these assets against these attacks is absolutely just,'' Zelenskyy told a news conference.
In an appeal to Belgian citizens who share their leader's worries about retaliation, Zelenskyy said: “One can fear certain legal steps in courts from the Russian Federation, but it’s not as scary as when Russia is at your borders.''
“So while Ukraine is defending Europe, you must help Ukraine,” he said.
Whatever method they use, the leaders have pledged to meet most of Ukraine's needs in 2026 and 2027. The International Monetary Fund estimates that would amount to 137 billion euros ($160 billion).
“We have to find a solution today," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters. EU Council President António Costa, who is chairing the meeting, vowed to keep leaders negotiating until an agreement is reached, even if it takes days.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said it was a case of sending "either money today or blood tomorrow" to help Ukraine.
If enough countries object, the plan could be blocked. There is no majority support for a plan B of raising the funds on international markets, although that too was being discussed at the summit.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that he hopes Belgium's concerns can be addressed.
"The reactions of the Russian president in recent hours show how necessary this is. In my view, this is indeed the only option. We are basically faced with the choice of using European debt or Russian assets for Ukraine, and my opinion is clear: We must use the Russian assets.”
Hungary and Slovakia oppose a reparations loan. Apart from Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy and Malta are also undecided.
“I would not like a European Union in war," said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who sees himself as a peacemaker. He’s also Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in Europe. “To give money means war.”
Orbán described the loan plan as a “dead end.''
The outcome of the summit has significant ramifications for Europe's place in negotiations to end the war. The United States wants assurances that the Europeans are intent on supporting Ukraine financially and backing it militarily — even as negotiations to end the war drag on without substantial results.
The loan plan in particular also poses important challenges to the way the bloc goes about its business. Should a two-thirds majority of EU leaders decide to impose the scheme on Belgium, which has most to lose, the impact on decision-making in Europe would be profound.
The EU depends on consensus, and finding voting majorities and avoiding vetoes in the future could become infinitely more complex if one of the EU's founding members is forced to weather an attack on its interests by its very own partners.
De Wever too must weigh whether the cost of holding out against a majority is worth the hit his government's credibility would take in Europe.
Whatever is decided, the process does not end at this summit. Legal experts would have to convert any political deal into a workable agreement, and some national parliaments may have to weigh in before the loan money could start flowing to Ukraine.
Associated Press writers Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
From left, Portugal's Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, European Council President Antonio Costa, French President Emmanuel Macron and Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban during a round table meeting at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
European Council President Antonio Costa, center right, speaks with Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, center left, during a round table meeting at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever, center, speaks with from left, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, Netherland's Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Luxembourg's Prime Minister Luc Frieden and Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk during a round table meeting at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks with the media as he arrives for the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, right, arrives for the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, center, is greeted as she arrives for a round table meeting on migration at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz, left, attend a round table meeting on migration at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP)
FILE - A view of the headquarters of Euroclear in Brussels, on Oct. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)
