Lions violated OTA contact rules, must forfeit practice
Apparently, things became overly physical during Detroit Lions’ organized team activities.
On Friday evening, the Lions revealed that they had breached player work rules concerning on-field physical contact. As a consequence, they were informed that they would have to forfeit their OTA practice on Monday.
The club’s complete statement is as follows:
The organization was informed on Friday evening by the NFL and NFLPA that the Organized Team Activities (OTA) practices conducted during the week of May 27 have breached player work rules related to on-field physical contact, as per the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Consequently, the team’s OTA practice planned for Monday, June 10, has been cancelled. We hold the rules of the NFL’s Offseason Program in high regard and strive to ensure our practices comply with them. We will maintain this careful approach to our practices in the future.
The collective bargaining agreement prohibits OTAs with live contact. However, it’s not entirely unusual for teams to lose practices or face fines.
The Lions held their OTA workouts from May 21-23 and May 29-31 and had planned to continue their final OTA session from Monday to Wednesday. However, they will now resume on Tuesday. Detroit has already completed its mandatory minicamp, which took place last week.
