25 May 2023 , 18:36
1106
0
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has been fined $50,000 after violating league rules.
The NFL made the team aware on Wednesday that their open session the following day would be cancelled, with them another session stripped from them next week.
Teams across the league returned this week for voluntary organised team activities (OTA's), but are only allowed to practice for a certain amount of days, and for a certain amount of time.
However, it has been reported the Patriots went over the maximum four hours that the players are allowed to be at the facility for, with the incident happening during the rookie mini-camps earlier this month.
And while head coach Belichick will ultimately take the fall as being the decision maker at the franchise, it has been reported that offensive assistant Joe Judge had been the one to have made the mistake.
Joe Burrow backs Patrick Mahomes after Kansas City Chiefs reach Super Bowl
Judge held a meeting with the special teams - consisting of players from offense and defense - which ran over time and caused the players to be at the facility for longer than they had supposed to have been.
According to the Boston Sports Journal, a complaint was filed by the NFLPA alleging that the Patriots had gone over the four hours allotted time, with Judge's meeting with special teams players overrunning. It had stopped them from going to offensive and defensive meetings on time.
Bill Belichick alonside Matt Patricia and Joe Judge - the latter being the man said to have made the crucial mistake during rookie mini-campIt's a huge blow to the Patriots who will lose two days of their team on the field and practicing together - an important period in which rookies are integrated with the veterans while coaches spend valuable time with their players.
The missed sessions were confirmed by the NFL on Wednesday, with one cancelled the first day that media had been scheduled to attend - and the first time that the likes of Mac Jones and new receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster were due to train. The Patriots have confirmed that their OTA's on May 25 and May 30 have been cancelled, with them now not scheduled to return until next Wednesday.
The Pats are not the first team to have OTA days taken off them, with the Chicago Bears, Washington Commanders, Houston Texans, San Francisco 49ers and Jacksonville Jaguars have all losing sessions since 2021.