New England Patriots losing two days of voluntary OTAs due to violation of NFL offseason rules

The New England Patriots are losing two days of voluntary organized team activities, due to a violation of offseason rules, according to Mike Reiss of ESPN. It helps to explain New England’s recent announcement of cancelling practice on Thursday. Another OTA practice next week has also been taken away, per Reiss.

While the New England Patriots have won an incredible amount under Bill Belichick over the years (8 Super Bowl rings), it’s just the latest incident where the Patriots head man has shown blatant disregard for NFL rules. Two practices shouldn’t matter in the large scheme of things, but those practices are more important for rookies and players that are new to their roster than anything else.

Belichick wisely made the move this offseason to hire a legitimate offensive coordinator. He hired Bill O’Brien from the Alabama Crimson Tide. Last year, the Patriots had Matt Patricia as their primary offensive play caller. It was a predictable disaster by all accounts. New England’s offensive numbers were awful across the board.

They ranked 26th in yards per game (314.6), 28th in first downs per game (16.9), and ranked 32nd in red zone percentage (42.2%). Patricia’s experience has been on the defensive side of the football for his entire coaching career. It was one of the more baffling decisions of Belichick’s Hall of Fame career. Many people will always look back on the decision and wonder about that one. And for good reason.

In July of 2015, one of the Patriots most famous scandals was “DeflateGate”. Tom Brady was suspended for four-games by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell after they discovered it was “more probable than not” that Patriots’ personnel intentionally deflated footballs. They also stated that they thought Brady was “at least generally aware”, according to the report. The Patriots had to forfeit two draft picks as punishment.

Another famous scandal involving New England came during February of 2002. Spygate was the name given to the scandal where New England had allegedly videotaped the St. Louis Rams’ walkthrough practice prior to Super Bowl XXXVI. Bill Belichick denied the allegations and The Boston Herald would later retract their story. The damage had been done. Belichick was fined $500,000, which was the largest fine ever imposed on a coach in league history at the time. The Patriots were also fined $250,000 and they were stripped of their first-round draft choice in the 2008 NFL Draft.