Ravens reportedly had some illegal padded practice at rookie camp

The current collective-bargaining agreement was agreed upon in 2011, and it significantly cut back the amount of padded practices a team could have. It completely eliminated padded practices from the offseason work.

The Baltimore Ravens, with a head coach and general manager who were hired long before 2011, presumably had enough time to learn those rules. Yet, they reportedly still participated in at least some illegal practice time during the rookie minicamp.

The Ravens had “a five-minute period on May 6 when rookies and first-year players suited up in pads during a non-contact punt protection drill,” according to ESPN.com’s Jamison Hensley. That’s against the rules and the NFL will investigate. According to Hensley’s story, the Ravens thought rookie minicamps had different rules than regular OTA practices (so …. they’ve been violating the CBA for five years?) and pulled the players off the field after Ravens union rep Ben Watson offered some clarification.

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If it was just five minutes, that’s very easy to confirm because all practices are filmed. But it’s still impossible to believe the Ravens had no idea that rookie minicamp wasn’t under the same rules about padded practices as the rest of the OTA work. It’s not a new coaching staff and it’s not a new rule, either. Maybe it’s not a coincidence it happened with rookies who might not know any better.

It might have only been five minutes, and maybe it was an honest mistake, but it’ll be easy for the NFL to determine if the Ravens broke a longstanding rule. That five minutes could end up being pretty costly.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab