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49ers Penalized for Practice Violations

The NFL's collective bargaining agreement strictly prohibits live contact such as bump-and-run coverage during spring practices.

Grant Cohn

What a disaster.

In addition to losing three players to long-term injuries and cancelling mandatory mini-camp this spring, the 49ers also lost a week of rookie mini-camp because they violated rules, according to the NFL Network's Tom Pelissero.

Good grief.

The clip Pelissero referred to most likely is the following video of rookie cornerback Deommodore Lenoir playing bump-and-run coverage and intercepting a pass during rookie mini-camp in May.

The NFL's collective bargaining agreement strictly prohibits live contact such as bump-and-run coverage during spring practices, because the players aren't yet in game shape, plus they're not wearing pads. In 2012, the NFL took away two OTAs from the Seahawks for a similar violation. The league clearly wants to keep players healthy, something the 49ers have had lots of trouble with every offseason since Kyle Shanahan became head coach in 2017.

The responsibility for this particular mistake first falls on the shoulders of Lenoir, who posted the clip to his Instagram before he took it down. He should have known the rules and he should have protected the organization.

But he's also just a rookie. The coaching staff should have emphasized the importance of not posting clips of players breaking rules.

Better yet, the coaching staff should have emphasized the importance of not breaking rules in the first place. I saw lots of contact and bump-and-run coverage during rookie mini-camp -- Lenoir wasn't the only offender. Shanahan should have stopped the action and taught the rookies the right way to practice in May.

Instead, Shanahan let the rookies do whatever they wanted, and then lost a valuable week of practice.

Not good.

Published
Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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