The Falcons violated the league and union work out rules that prohibit excessive contact in all offseason workouts, the league announced on Thursday.
The Falcons will forfeit a week (three days) of organized team activities in 2017.
“We certainly love the competitive environment that we all have here, but we are going to do everything that we can to make sure that we follow all league an (collective bargaining agreement) rules, to make sure that we totally follow the policies that are set for us,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said.
The Falcons OTA sessions were not overly physical. There wasn’t one fight and players were not taken to the ground. But extended contact between linemen may have been been deemed excessive by the league which reviews tape of the OTA practices.
“I just think in general, more contact than they would have liked to have seen,” Quinn said. “It’s a great topic. It’s certainly one that I’ll visit with them through the offseason. Not just with our own players, but with the league too.
“I want to make sure that I’m teaching the guidelines exactly as the league has set forth. We do love the competitive environment that we do promote. We have been safe with the guys. There was a violation there and we own up to that. We want to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
Quinn doesn’t believe it will be a distraction for the team. He didn’t even plan to mention it to them.
“It’s not a distraction on our end,” Quinn said. “We’ll deal with that coming up in the spring. As far as the focus for the game and where we are at right now, it’s not a distraction for us.”
Falcons union representatives are kicker Matt Bryant, fullback Patrick DiMarco and tight end Jacob Tamme.
“This is a league issue,” DiMarco said. “Not a union issue.”
Seattle was also cited for violating this rule in 2012, 2014 and 2016. Quinn was Seattle’s defensive coordinator in 2014.
As a repeat offender, the Seahawks were fined $400,000, will lose their fifth-round draft pick and must forfeit the first week (three days) of 2017 OTAs. Seattle’s coach Pete Carroll was also fined $200,000 for not maintaining appropriate control over practices and failing to intervene when prohibited conduct occurs.
The Falcons’ violation stemmed from a May 2016 session in which the club permitted players to engage in excessive levels of on-field physical contact which is expressly prohibited under the NFL-NFLPA collective bargaining agreement.
This is the Falcons first violation of the rule. The players will be paid for the cancelled sessions.
The prohibition is one of several measures the NFL and NFLPA implemented to enhance player safety by limiting contact during offseason workout programs. The rules also help to prevent any team from gaining a competitive advantage.
