The New England Patriots are no strangers to NFL rules violations and the latest, this time in the offseason, has cost the team two OTA practices.
For any New England Patriots fans hoping to get a first report of what the team is looking like this offseason from the media at OTAs, you're going to have to wait.
Thursday, May 25 was supposed to be the first scheduled OTA practice open to the media. Instead, that practice was surprisingly canceled on Wednesday afternoon. It seemingly came out of nowhere, but a few hours later, we found out why it was canceled.
According to Mike Reiss of ESPN, the Patriots were docked two OTA practices for a violation of offseason rules. Thursday's practice is the first they lost and there will be another next week that will no longer be taking place.
Fans think Patriots are winning Super Bowl after being punished for 'cheating'
Perhaps the two biggest cheating scandals in NFL history both involved the New England Patriots with Spygate and Deflategate. Of course, after Spygate came to light in September 2007, all the Pats did was reel off an undefeated regular season before falling to the Giants in the Super Bowl. Then, in 2015 when Deflategate's subject matter occurred in the AFC Championship game. Belichick and Co. went on to win another Lombardi Trophy.
So with the Patriots back to "cheating", fans were quick to joke (or maybe not so much) that Belichick and New England were definitely back and going back to the Super Bowl.
Perhaps the funniest addition to the conversation was a response to the question of what the rules violation was, to which one quick-witted individual replied "Drafting a punter and kicker in the same draft." That is, indeed, worthy of punishment.
Alas, we don't know what rule the Patriots actually violated to receive this punishment. And while the jokes are great, the fact of the matter is that New England appears to have a ways to go before they are actually back in the Super Bowl conversation.
