ASHBURN, Va. (AP) – The NFL has docked the Washington Redskins three days of offseason practices for conducting workouts that were too physical.

The team will lose its “organized team activities” – essentially practices without pads – scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

In addition, there can be no player meetings or conditioning sessions at Redskins Park from Friday through Wednesday. Players will be allowed to report to the building only if receiving treatment for an injury.

The team’s mandatory three-day minicamp begins June 17.

“It’s something where we felt like we were operating the way we should,” coach Joe Gibbs said Thursday. “After reviewing it, they thought our line drills were too physical. It’s happened to other people. I think it’s just something to deal with.”

The team’s offseason work came under scrutiny when the team posted highlights from its practices on its Web site. Officials from the NFL Players Association saw the footage and notified the league of possible violations of the rule forbidding “live contact drills between offensive and defensive linemen” during the offseason.

Gibbs said the Redskins will continue the Internet broadcasts, but he said he scaled back the drills at Thursday’s practice.

“We had no one-on-one whatsoever,” Gibbs said. “I’m kind of gun-shy right now until they really clarify it for us.”

On another matter, Gibbs said he finally had heard from safety Sean Taylor.

After months of refusing to return the coach’s phone calls, Taylor spoke to Gibbs by phone on Wednesday with help from Taylor’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus. Taylor had been the only unexcused absentee from the offseason workouts.

He has been told to stay away from Redskins Park following an arrest in Florida.

“I did talk to him, had a good talk with him, and Drew,” Gibbs said. “We just kind of talked a little bit about the situation and everything and just kind of had a personal conversation. So we’re hoping the issues can get cleared up to give the Sean the time to work on this.”

Taylor is accused of aggravated assault with a firearm and simple battery following an incident involving a gun last week near Taylor’s home in Miami. He is free on $16,500 bond with an arraignment date scheduled for June 24.

AP-ES-06-09-05 1636EDT


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