On Saturday, the Baltimore Ravens announced that star quarterback Lamar Jackson would not play this week against the Chicago Bears, revealing that he was actually limited in practice after previously declaring that he had been a full participant in practice. Now, the NFL is set to investigate why his injury status was incorrectly reported.
The NFL requires every team to accurately report a player’s injury status throughout the week, and it seems that Jackson’s status was not correctly reported.
In a statement on Saturday, the team revealed that while Jackson did fully participate during practice, he didn’t actually take any reps with the starters due to his injury.
“Lamar Jackson was present for and participated fully in our entire Friday practice,” the statement read, via [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/46723952/nfl-looking-ravens-handling-jackson-practice-participation). “Upon further evaluation today and after conferring with the league office, because Lamar didn’t take any starter reps in practice, we updated our report to reflect his practice participation.”
This is a clear violation of the league’s injury report policy, which specifically states that a player assigned to the scout team for medical reasons should not be listed as a full participant in practice.
“A player who participates in individual drills, but for medical reasons doesn’t take his normal repetitions during the team portion of practice and is assigned to the scout team should be listed as ‘limited participation.’ Participation on the scout team, no matter how extensive, by a player whose normal repetitions would be with the starter but for his medical condition, would not alter the player’s proper designation as ‘limited participation,'” the policy reads.
As a result, the league has confirmed that it will investigate the matter, which could mean potential punishment for the Ravens.
“The league will look into this,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said Saturday. “The league reviews any matter involving a change to a player’s status.”
We’ll have to see whether or not the team faces any punishment as a result of this mistake.