The NFL has suspended the New England Patriots two days of offseason practice for a rule violation, and head coach Bill Belichick has had to pay a hefty fine.
The Patriots, who like many other teams are currently holding so-called Organized Team Activities (OTA) – light voluntary training sessions in the offseason – surprisingly canceled their session for Thursday on Wednesday. The reason for this is loud ESPN a punishment by the NFL for violating offseason regulations.
The Patriots were canceled a total of two OTA days, in addition to Thursday and one in the coming week.
While ESPN did not provide any details on said violations, brought reporter Greg Bedard from Boston SportsJournal Light in the dark: According to his report, Joe Judge, the offensive assistant and quarterbacks coach, caused the rule violation. He reportedly held a 20-minute special teams meeting. This is said to have resulted in players on offense and defense spending a total of more than the maximum four hours allowed on the team premises.
Additionally, head coach Bill Belichick was fined $50,000 for being primarily responsible for the team.
NFL: Patriots not first team with offseason offenses
The players’ union NFLPA has been observing very closely for a few years that off-season regulations of all kinds are observed and violations of them are punished accordingly.
The Patriots join a longer list with this violation of offseason regulations: In recent years, the Cowboys (2021, 2022), Bears (2022), Commanders (2022), Texans (2022), 49ers (2021) , Jaguars (2021), Ravens (2018) and Seahawks (2016) for similar violations.
