Ravens' Lamar Jackson controversy ends in punishment from NFL

The Baltimore Ravens made what they insist was an honest mistake with the way they reported Lamar Jackson’s injury last week, but they are still facing disciplinary action from the NFL.

On Friday, the NFL announced that the Ravens have been fined $100,000 for violating the league’s injury report policy.

Jackson was still working his way back from a hamstring injury last week when the Ravens listed him as a limited participant in practice on Wednesday and Thursday and then a full participant on Friday. When Jackson became a full participant, the assumption was that he was trending toward playing in Baltimore’s Week 8 game against the Chicago Bears.

Then on Saturday, the Ravens announced that Jackson had been retroactively downgraded to limited for Friday’s practice. That led to questions about whether they were deliberately trying to deceive the Bears.

John Harbaugh said it was an accident

Ravens coach John Harbaugh said Baltimore’s training staff and PR team made an honest mistake when putting together the injury report. While Jackson did practice on Friday, it was only with the scout team. NFL rules state that a player who usually starts must be considered a limited practice participant if that player only takes reps with the scout team “no matter how extensive” the participation with the scout team is.

The NFL noted that the Ravens fully cooperated with the investigation. It was determined that their injury report violation was the result of negligence, not intentional deception. Baltimore will not appeal.