OTAs Uh-Oh! Did Patriots Player Snitch on Joe Judge?

After reports of a special teams meeting led by New England Patriots coach Joe Judge was part of the breach of NFL rules, some wonder if there is a "rat" in the locker room.

The New England Patriots became the latest team to be reprimanded by the NFL for violations of the rules during OTAs. Violations have become commonplace in the league over the last few years as the Dallas Cowboys (2021, 2022), Chicago Bears (2022), Houston Texans (2022), San Francisco 49ers (2021), and Jacksonville Jaguars (2021) have all had OTA days taken for breaking offseason rules.

The old saying, "if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying," is a great example of this situation, but the word "cheating" is used loosely as the latest rule-breaking from the Patriots is not that serious.

Despite that, some drama is potentially brewing in Foxboro as insiders are starting to question the original report from Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio about who actually reported the infraction to the NFL. Florio's report states that an observer from the NFL Players Association witnessed the violation and communicated it to the league. A theory is being peddled that a member of the Patriots' locker room was behind the reporting to the NFL.

Yet this theory is something that NBC Sports Boston’s Phil Perry put to rest recently.

“What I’ve heard is that there was a NFLPA representative who was at Gillette Stadium on one of the days during which one of these violations occurred,” Perry said. “So, May first, May second, May fourth, it was three separate occasions that these workshops occurred and players stayed longer than they were supposed to. And on one of those days, there was a PA rep who was present. And I think that’s part of the reason why this comes to be, why this punishment ends up coming out.”

According to reports, the infraction was due to a special teams meeting called by Joe Judge being put on the internal schedule, essentially making it come across as a "mandatory" event instead of voluntary, which violates the rules of the second phase. 

This, along with the fact that the special teams' workshops also caused players to stay at the facility longer than the four hours they were supposed to, caused the Patriots to be punished. 

The worries of a "snitch" being inside the Patriots locker room comes after a season where the offense, which Matt Patricia and Joe Judge led, was described as "dysfunctional." This theory of a player reporting the violation to the NFL would assume that maybe there is still no love loss between Judge and a certain player. 

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