Indianapolis, IN, United States (AHN Sports) – According to a report, the Cleveland Browns were one of several teams reminded this week by the NFL that players are not supposed to “meet” with coaches or be given playbooks during this period of the offseason.
The issue came up, according to sources, after a story in The Cleveland Plain Dealer reporting that quarterback Colt McCoy had been meeting with new coach Pat Shurmur since the Super Bowl.
It was also reported that the Browns intended to give McCoy a portion of Shurmur’s offensive playbook before the possible owners lockout on March 4 soMcCoy would have something to study during the work stoppage.
“It’s an interesting time. Organizations have to be very careful on how you do things. You can’t do anything you haven’t done in the past,” Browns president Mike Holmgren told the Plain Dealer. “The fact Pat Shurmur is new … Colt and some players have come in. We can give him a playbook, have him study it, but you can’t have meetings. You have all this stuff going on, so at the very least you’ve got to be able to give him [a playbook].”
You would think so, especially with a new staff coming in and a young quarterback at the controls, but the league feels otherwise.
According to the report the league held a meeting with coaches and general managers at the NFL Scouting Combine as it pointed out that existing rules forbid meetings with coaches and the dispensing of playbooks until the official start of off-season conditioning programs on March 15.
The league is saying the offseason rules were a concession to the wishes of the players union, which did not want coaches pressuring players to meet with coaches until the off-season programs started.
, “I’m not going to get into what we can and can’t do. There are rules on everything. We’re just going about it as whatever they say, we are going to obey them,” Cleveland general manager Tom Hecker told the paper.
Shurmur denied that he and McCoy have held “meetings” to discuss the team’s new offense. He said some of the Browns players working out in the team’s headquarters have simply stopped in to meet their new head coach.
“There’s a new head coach in the building and they’re just curious about coming in and meeting him,” Shurmur said. “I haven’t told any of them to come in. I think it’s just normal protocol. We’re just getting to know one another.”
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