New England Patriots forced to cancel practice after being hit with NFL punishment

For not the first time, the New England Patriots are in trouble with the NFL and have lost two days of OTA's due to violating the league's rules.

The Patriots were scheduled to be practicing on Thursday as part of their off-season practice regime, with teams around the league getting back together for the first time ahead of the 2023 season. Thursday was set to be first training session open to the media, giving outlets the opportunity to speak to coaches and players for the first time.

But on Wednesday, the Patriots were told that they could not hold a practice as it would be taken away from them by the NFL after a violation of the rules. It is not currently known what the exact nature of the violation is, but it has been confirmed by the NFL.

According to the Patriots themselves, they will now no longer conduct practice on May 25 or May 30. Instead, they will resume its offseason schedule next Wednesday.

They are not the first team to have lost training days in recent years, with the Dallas Cowboys being penalised for in a similar manner both in 2022 and 2021. The Chicago Bears, Washington Commanders, Houston Texans, San Francisco 49ers and Jacksonville Jaguars have all also received penalties within the last two years.

Of course, this is not the first time that the Pats have been in trouble with the league - with fans already being reminded of the infamous 'Spygate' incident in 2007. The team were found to have been secretly recording opposing coaches signals in games for as long as eight years, reportedly being caught by the New York Jets.

Bill Belichick will not be pleased to be told two days of practice had been taken away from his teams (Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images)

The league rules state that teams are not prohibited to record opposition coaches, with there being designated areas in which teams are allowed to film - the opposition's bench being a huge no-go zone. The NFL investigated the Patriots for a year, before fining head coach Bill Belichick the maximum $500,000, while the team lost their 2008 first round draft pick.

Seven years later, the Patriots lost another first-round pick with quarterback Tom Brady banned for four games after they were have found to be deflating footballs in a playoff win over the Indianapolis Colts. The Patriots and Belichick have won six Super Bowl's in the last 23 seasons, but their reputation does remain somewhat tarnished after the Spygate and Deflategate incidents.