With the completion of this week's OTA practices, Redskins players will have off until June 16, head coach Joe Gibbs said. The team has been penalized by the NFL with the loss of three workout days--including two OTA sessions--as the league has deemed some recent practices to be too physical.
"They found that our offensive lineman and defensive lineman drills were too physical," Gibbs said. "We'll not have work here of any kind other than treatment for a few days. Next Thursday, we'll resume our workouts with an OTA day, which will lead right into mini-camp."
The NFL and the NFL Players Association issued the following statement:
"The NFL Management Council and the NFL Players Association have resolved a complaint by the Players Association against the Washington Redskins concerning violations of the Collective Bargaining Agreement's off-season workout rules.
NFL Executive Vice President Harold Henderson and Players Association Executive Director Gene Upshaw have determined that the Redskins violated the rules concerning the intensity and tempo of drills conducted on the club's organized team activity days (OTA days).
As a result, the Redskins will forfeit three days of their off-season program (June 13-15, 2005). Redskins' players are not permitted to be at the facility on those days, but will be paid for the sessions."
The ruling came after an employee of the NFLPA viewed video from Redskins.com and notified the league of their concern that the line work was too physical. League officials contacted the team and required officials to forward video of relative portions of practice for review.
Gibbs said team officials and coaches believed they were operating under the guidelines of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
"What's important to me is our players," Gibbs said. "We always want to have a great relationship with the player's union. Obviously we want to be within the rules and we want to stay within the rules. The rules specifically state that you can have offensive lineman versus defensive lineman. But it can't rise to the point of being full-go. You can't have bull-rushes. After we turned the film in, they felt like our [drills] were too physical."
The Redskins were initially scheduled for OTA work from Monday-Wednesday next week, with Thursday an off day. Now the team will hold an OTA session on Thursday when players return from the break.
The Redskins will host their only full-squad mini-camp starting on Friday, June 17 and ending Sunday, June 19.
