The Chicago Bears kicked off the final week of Organized Team Activities on Monday. But Tuesday’s practice, which was originally open to the media, has been wiped completely from the slate.
According to the Chicago Tribune’s Dan Wiederer, the Bears violated offseason rules by conducting live contact during their May practices, which is prohibited per the CBA.
According to the league source, the Bears were warned for having practices featuring too much contact last month with requests made that they alter their practice activity to adjust. Eventually, when proper adjustments weren’t made, the NFL Players Association was asked to get involved and the NFL stepped in, deciding that the team was in violation of league rules. As a result, the Bears were required to forfeit one of their OTA practices.
It seems that new head coach Matt Eberflus was a little too excited for his team to start getting meaningful contact in, which isn’t permitted until training camp.
Unfortunately, that resulted in the loss of an on-field practice during the offseason.
UPDATE
According to a league source, the Bears were forced to wipe today’s OTA practice off the books completely after violating the offseason rules of the CBA with live contact during their May practices, which is prohibited.
A misstep by the new regime.
— Dan Wiederer (@danwiederer) June 7, 2022
The Bears still have one OTA practice left on Wednesday, per Wiederer, before they kick off veteran minicamp on June 14.
While Eberflus is anxious for the live contact to begin, he’s going to have to reign it in over the next few practices.
