TEXANS ACCUSED OF VIOLATING OFFSEASON CONTACT RULES

We’ve been banging the drum regarding impermissible contact in offseason workout for a couple of years. And we’ve been doing so for several reasons.
First, the Collective Bargaining Agreement prevents it.
Second, the practice seems to be fairly rampant.
Third, the NFLPA rarely seems to do anything about it.
Fourth, there’s nothing else to write about in June.
Contact occurs in offseason no-contact drills in part because players don’t complain about it. This time around, however, players are openly griping.
In an item posted at ESPN.com and to be aired during Sunday morning’s Outside The Lines, T.J. Quinn reports that multiple Texans players complained about contact in offseason workouts -- and that three players suffered season-ending injuries.
“It was a live blocking drill,” guard Dan Stevenson said. “There were people getting pancaked. Everyone’s going as hard as he can.”
Stevenson suffered a torn labrum in his shoulder, and it’s possible that he won’t play again.
“I felt like, for my career, my occupation, my dreams, for all this to be taken away from me, to be jeopardized not for just one season but for my entire football career for something that wasn’t supposed to be done -- I was upset,” Stevenson said.
“I was the third offensive lineman who was done for the season, just from that drill,” offensive tackle Jordan Black said. “If nobody’s going to stand up, it’s just going to continue.”
Black was later cut by the Texans, and he has since signed with the Jaguars. (Who might suddenly be thinking about cutting him, before they open their own offseason program.)
Per Quinn, the Texans denied that contact was occurring, and the NFL’s Management Council denied a grievance filed on Stevenson’s behalf.
So Stevenson took a video camera to a team meeting and recorded video of the drill. Though it’s unknown whether Stevenson recorded the images surreptiously (which could open a separate can of worms), Quinn reports that the video “shows what appears to be full-speed, full-contact drills.”
In 2007, the Raiders lost a week of their offseason program due to complaints regarding the intensity and speed of no-contact drills. But with so many other teams doing the same thing, it was odd that Oakland was singled out.
As one media source explained it to me last week while discussing the importance of having a former player in a high position of union leadership, it’s important for the union to exercise discretion in this regard, because some instances of offseason contact are the result of undrafted rookies trying to make the team in May. But where the coaching staff is encouraging if not requiring contact at a time when players have only a helmet to protect themselves, the union needs to stand up -- and players need to know that there will be no retaliation if they complain.
Guys like Stevenson and Black can sound off, because they no longer play for the team that allegedly was violating the rules. But other players who hope to continue their careers with their current teams don’t have that luxury.
In an unrelated development, Chiefs running back Larry Johnson has just decided to participate in all offseason workouts this year.