Malcolm Butler has been one of the NFL’s feel-good stories since his Super Bowl-clinching interception for the New England Patriots 18 months ago, but on Monday he took on the role of a bad boy.

The Patriots cornerback and former Vicksburg High star was involved in a scuffle with Chicago Bears wide receiver Alshon Jeffrey during the teams’ joint practice. The incident escalated quickly into a full-on scrum, and both Butler and Jeffrey were ejected from the practice.

The ejections were part of an earlier agreement between New England coach Bill Belichick and Chicago coach John Fox, the Associated Press reported. Belichick has a zero-tolerance policy on fighting.

“When you do that, you have to get kicked out, just like a game, and then go inside. That’s what happened today,” Patriots safety Duron Harmon told Patriots.com. “Malcolm Butler’s a talented player and we don’t want that to happen. We don’t want to lose him because he’s a big part of what we do.

“There’s really no place for it on the football field. We’ve got to not let our tempers rile up that much and just continue to have discipline, even when stuff’s not going the way you want it to. Just continue to stay focused and remember the bigger picture.”

The incident between Butler and Jeffrey was one of three dust-ups during the joint practice. It started when Jeffrey was blocking Butler during a running play. Both players were away from the play, but Butler seemingly took exception to an aggressive block by Jeffrey.

The Boston Globe reported that there was pushing and shoving before they grabbed each other’s facemask. Bears tight end Greg Scruggs then joined in, and multiple players from both teams followed. It was broken up about 30 seconds later.

Fox said he isn’t worried about the issues spilling over into other practices. The Bears and Patriots are scheduled to play a preseason game against each other Thursday night in Foxborough.

“At some point you kind of have to manage your emotions and the closer you get to real games, the more important that is,” he said. “It’s kind of part to the process and you just try to make sure it doesn’t happen in games.”