John Harbaugh Blames His Illegal Practices on His Rookies

Source – The Ravens sent out statements from General Manager Ozzie Newsome and coach Jim Harbaugh, after their latest punishment for violating rules against contact in offseason workouts.

Harbaugh’s statement points directly at “pass contact rules,” and lays the blame at young players.

The Ravens were also punished for OTA violations in 2016 (for having rookies in pads), and this time the team had to forfeit two days of OTAs and Harbaugh and the team were fined.

“We take very seriously reading, understanding, abiding by and playing by the rules,” Harbaugh said in his statement. “Our coaches, staff and players have worked extremely hard to run the offseason program according to all the Collective Bargaining Agreement rules. Our team has been singled out for pass coverage contact during the early part of OTAs. We have heavily emphasized these CBA pass coverage rules in meetings, and coached them diligently on the practice field. It has also been our priority to include our veteran players, along with new Ravens who have practiced and played for other teams, in the process and use their input and ideas.

“Even with consistent and repeated teaching, these rules pose considerable adjustments for the young players. We have tried very hard to eliminate contact in pass coverage during OTAs, even so far as to pull players out of practice who struggle with these adjustments. I am confident we have done everything within our power and ability to practice within the rules, and we will continue to focus on preparing, teaching and practicing the right way.”

According to my go-to site for all matters of rules violations and the integrity of pro football Your Team Cheats, this is the Ravens’ second such rookie practice infraction in the last three years. In 2016 they were caught having padded practices for the noobs, in clear violation of the CBA. As I recall, the only reason they got caught is they had just picked up Ben Watson who was the team’s union rep, and he came into the job paying attention. For how many years prior to that they’d been abusing their rookies this way in violation of the CBA under the noses of their old player reps is anyone’s guess.

What we do know is that for the 2016 infraction, the team lost three OTA practices and paid a fine of $500,000. This time, they lose two OTAs and John Harbaugh has to pay $50,000 and owner Steve Bisciotti 100 grand. Because in what the Deflategate judge called Roger Goodell’s “own brand of industrial justice,” a second offense brings about a lesser punishment. At least when the offending team is owned by his golf buddy Bisciotti. I suppose if next year Ozzie Newsome takes his UDFA rookies into a room, snaps a pool cue in half Joker-style and tells them there’s only room for one on the roster, they’ll lose half a day’s OTA and get fined 20 bucks.

But that ‘s not the point of this blog. I’m not here to criticize. I’m here to stand in solidarity with my oppressed brothers from Baltimore. It’s not easy to have your team tarred with the epithet “cheaters” and feathered with “repeat offenders.” To have all their accomplishments tainted. To have people want to throw asterisks at your Super Bowl victories like they’re ninja stars. To constantly hear terms like “competitive advantage.” Or bitter old resentful coots like Don Shula start throwing out nicknames like the “Cheavens” and “John Harbacheat.” Especially when your franchise has tried to uphold the integrity of the game by getting rules passed to ban Tackle Eligible formations (even though they used one of their own afterwards) and jumping the center on kick attempts. Or to a coach with so much integrity that he blames his rookies for violations happening on his watch.

I’d just hate to see that happen to a team with so much integrity. I stand with you, Baltimore.