Our own JP Finlay was able to confirm that the Commanders were docked two OTA days in 2023, and head coach Ron Rivera fined $100,000, for excessive contact at this year’s OTA activities.
Suffice to say, JP was quite upset by the discipline.
“I want to be unequivocal here: what a load of father ducking horse you-know-what,” JP said bluntly. “This is a joke. The team doesn’t even get to respond to this, and everyone’s going to assume it was the Reaves collision – but this could’ve been in the works long before that, like the second wave of OTAs when guys went out on the field when they weren’t supposed to.”
Whether it was that collision or a different hit – and JP admitted he saw a couple – he was still “stunned” by the move.
“I am just stunned by this one. I was at every practice, OTA, minicamp for a decade, and every practice this year we were allowed at, and I didn’t see anything more excessive than I’ve seen in the past,” he said on Friday’s abbreviated BMitch and Finlay show.
Even worse? In JP’s mind, he wonders if it’s a little cheap payback from the league, vis-à-vis an issue with Commanders owner Daniel Snyder.
“If there are Commanders fans out there who think everything goes against the organization…you know the problem with conspiracy theories? Sometimes it seems like there’s a reason for them,” he said. “Considering the commissioner has to go to Congress next week because of the owner’s alleged transgressions? It seems like nothing ever goes right for our damn Burgundy and Gold.”
Barstool’s PFT Commenter joined the show right after JP’s rant, and the co-host of Pardon My Take mentioned the Reaves/Brown incident as well – and while he thinks $100K might be excessive, he also wondered why it got to that point in the first place.
“I feel like I understand how a head coach could be frustrated with his players for doing something like that in a minicamp,” PFT Commenter said, “but what is a coach even doing having his players in drills where that’s even a possibility? It’s minicamp, the only thing you want is to have nobody get hurt. There shouldn’t be anybody even touching each other during minicamp.”
