Patriots Caught Breaking NFL Rules Again, Belichick Fined

The New England Patriots and Bill Belichick are not strangers when it comes to violating NFL rules and policies. This year, the team is in trouble again after violating the NFL’s offseason rules. The Patriots forfeited two of their OTA practices and the NFL fined Belichick $50,000 as a result of the violation, according to Greg Bedard of Boston Sports Journal.

The Patriots listed a meeting on the team’s internal schedule which then made it a mandatory meeting, thus violating the NFL’s offseason rules and policies. This meant that an optional meeting turned into a “mandatory” meeting due to a mistake on the Patriots’ coaching staff, according to the NFL Players Association.

Offensive assistant coach Joe Judge is also at the center of blame for the violations. Judge scheduled multiple meetings that caused Patriots’ players to go over the four-hour maximum that they are permitted to be at the facility each day, per the report.

This is detrimental for the Patriots as the team will miss out on a fifth of their allotted OTA sessions for 2023. OTAs are optional and many times star players decide to not attend but the sessions are an important time for rookies and newly signed players to establish themselves in front of the coaches and to learn the team’s playbook.

In recent memory, multiple teams violated the league’s offseason rules which included the Seattle Seahawks, Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Dallas Cowboys. In each of these instances, the teams were all docked OTA sessions as a result.

The Pittsburgh Steelers will play host to the Patriots for a Thursday Night Football game on December 7, 2023. This game is already in the national spotlight due to the NFL’s new rules in regard to flexing late-season Thursday night games.

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