Patriots HC Bill Belichick shoulders blame for offseason violations
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has a penchant for breaking the NFL’s rules, so it come as little surprise when the team forfeited two days of OTAs and was fined $50,000 last week after violating the league’s offseason rules.
As the team returned to the practice field on Wednesday for the first time since the violation — in typical Belichick fashion — the 71-year-old coach admitted fault without going into much detail about what actually transpired.
“I'm responsible for it, so that’s it,” Belichick told reporters. “...It's in the past. (We've) moved on. (Just) looking forward to getting out on the field today.”
According to NFL.com, the violations occurred during special teams meetings overseen by offensive assistant Joe Judge at the team’s practice facility in early May. Those gatherings went longer than the NFL-mandated four-hour-per-day limit.
The Patriots tried to skirt around the league rules, citing each “informal meeting” was voluntary, but the NFL Players Association argued the meetings could be interpreted as mandatory by the players.
“We had a situation with some scheduling in Phase 2, but we got that worked out,” Belichick explained.
The NFL could have fined Belichick up to $100,000 and slapped the team with a fine as well but did not. Instead, the Patriots lost two of their 10 OTA practices. The team has five more days of OTAs and three mandatory minicamp practices June 12-14 before taking a summer break prior to training camp, which starts in late July.
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