Seems one NFL team got a little too eager to start the 2016 season.
The Baltimore Ravens will forfeit one week of OTA sessions June 1-3 and both the organization and head coach John Harbaugh were fined for violating the league’s offseason workout rules, the team announced Thursday.
Per Ryan Mink of BaltimoreRavens.com, “the Ravens reportedly used pads during a five-minute portion of a special teams punt drill. Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, teams are not permitted to use pads until training camp.”
“We made a mistake and we are sorry for that,” the Ravens said in a statement. “We accept the NFL discipline.”
This isn’t the first the Ravens have been punished for something like this. In 2010, the Ravens were forced to cancel the last week of OTAs for violating the rules concerning the intensity and tempo of drills conducted on the club’s organized team activity days as well as the length of time spent by players at the team facility on those days.
General manager Ozzie Newsome apologized and said it wouldn’t happen again. Oh, but it did, just in a different way.
Baltimore will be without three of its 10 total OTA workouts, but mandatory minicamp and training camp are still a go.
