PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

The Steelers have sequestered themselves at Saint Vincent College once again this summer to build intangibles and promote team bonding as well as to identify their nickel cornerback and their No. 2 wide receiver.

They took a big step toward the former by taking swings at one another this week.

The first battle royal of camp was actually more pushing and shoving than punching.

But that said, mission accomplished.

“Sometimes, you have to stoke the fire to see what we’re about as a team,” linebacker T.J. Watt maintained.

Near the conclusion of a practice that had already gotten chippy, linebacker Elandon Roberts threw a shoulder into quarterback Justin Fields during a non-tackling drill, and Fields hit the ground hard.

Rookie offensive lineman Mason McCormick responded by charging Roberts.

Soon everyone on the field, it seemed, was converging on a growing pile of players with malicious intent. Even those not involved in the rep on the offensive and defensive sidelines were advancing into the breach.

McCormick, a fourth-round pick from South Dakota State, earned his stripes.

“Love that guy, man,” veteran center Nick Herbig gushed. “I love the way he plays football. He plays the way I feel like football should be played. He’s violent, he’s nasty, he’s physical.

“That’s good qualities to have as offensive linemen.”

Such a mindset is mandatory.

“That’s our job,” Herbig continued. “We want to be a physical group by any means, so we come out here with our hard hats on and we get to work.”

Watt, meanwhile, loved the response to McCormick’s response.

“To be able to see guys run to the fight instead of away from it is awesome,” he emphasized. “Obviously, we don’t want it to continue and mess up practice and slow things down.

“But I think it was good for today.”

Such things always are as long as nobody gets hurt.

It’s all fun and games until somebody breaks a hand on a helmet.

But failing that, such exchanges actually bring teams closer together.

“Team bonding!” former Steelers guard Ramon Foster posted on X in response to a video of the fracas.

That’s why the coaches said what needed to be said in the aftermath with a perceptible lack of conviction.

Head coach Mike Tomlin assessed what transpired as “less than professional,” even though we know he knows such things are a necessary part of the team-building process.

Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin reminded his guys, “You have to keep your cool.”

“You do that stuff in a game, you’re out of the game and it hurts our team,” he added. “We gotta understand you can’t fight.”

But Austin also emphasized having the type of collective attitude on defense that can at times threaten to boil over is as impactful as the right coverage scheme or blitz package on a critical third down.

“A lot of defense is about temperament, how you play and what you’re willing to dish out,” he maintained. “I think our guys are tough. They’re edgy; I like that. I would never discourage that at all.

“We want our identity on defense, we’re going to be tough, physical, hard-nosed, that’s what we are. You don’t want to legislate that out of those guys.”

And so they won’t.

And if it happens again, they’ll get over it, just as they already had gotten over what erupted on Wednesday by the conclusion of that day’s practice.

“It happens,” offered Herbig’s little brother Nick, a second-year linebacker. “We wouldn’t be family if we didn’t fight.”

Mike Prisuta is the sports anchor/reporter for Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show. He’s also the host of the Steelers Radio Network Pregame Show and the color analyst for Robert Morris University men’s hockey broadcasts.