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TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were penalized an OTA practice for being too physical, causing them to forfeit Wednesday’s practice this week, coach Todd Bowles said Thursday.
The team had been scheduled to practice Wednesday after Tuesday's scheduled day off. But then they were informed by the league that, according to Bowles, they had "too many guys on the ground."
"It was about three or four plays that recorded us," Bowles said. "We're trying to practice safety as well. We've got a lot of new guys trying to learn how to practice but we cleaned that up and kind of took care of it."
The NFL's Collective Bargaining Agreement has a no-contact policy during OTA practices. The team returned on Thursday and did not appear to have any issues with physicality.
"We cleaned it up after that. We understand. We're not trying to get nobody hurt," Bowles, said.
"I mean I think we've gotta stay above the ground but it's a mentality," running back Kenneth Gainwell said. “We want to have that mentality going into the season. We understand we’ve gotta stay off the ground, but we’ve gotta have that fire.”
The Detroit Lions were docked a practice in 2024 for this. In 2022, then-Washington Commanders coach Ron Rivera was fined $100,000 and the team lost two OTA practices as well for violations. That year, then-Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy was fined and the team lost a 2023 OTA practice for violating the no-contact policy. The Chicago Bears also lost an OTA that season for being overly physical.
The CBA holds head coaches personally responsible for any practices that become overly physical, which is why, in some instances, there are fines. Not all violations result in fines, however. League spokesperson Brian McCarthy told ESPN that Bowles was not fined for this violation.
