The Bears’ organized team activity practice originally scheduled for Tuesday was canceled by the NFL as punishment for having live contact in practices last month, a league source confirmed.
Another source said that an NFLPA member noticed contact drills while visiting an OTA practice in May and told the team to stop. The NFLPA then looked at film of subsequent practices as part of its standard follow-up procedure — and saw the Bears had not stopped the drills.
Former Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, conducting his first-ever NFL offseason as a head coach, inched over the line of acceptable practice protocol. Live contact is prohibited during offseason workouts, per the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, which is agreed upon by the NFLPA and team owners.
The team will resume its OTA practices Wednesday at Halas Hall.
The Bears sent an email Monday night to reporters scheduled to attend Tuesday’s OTA in which they moved media access to Wednesday. They offered no explanation for the change.
The team is in its last week of OTA practices, which are voluntary but well-attended. Next week it will hold three mandatory minicamp practices before breaking for the summer. Training camp is expected to begin at Halas Hall during the last week of July.
