The Lions certainly aren’t the only team breaking the offseason rules

We recently listed the three most important things about mandatory minifields. One of those factors affected the Lions on Friday night.

Detroit lost its last OTA session by having a lot of contact during off-season work.

Of course, any contact is too much contact. But virtually every team has at least some contact prohibited during offseason workouts.

Why else would teams like the Rams have players in red jerseys with no contact during OTAs? In the off-season, every shirt is red. In theory.

So there’s no way it’s just the Lions. The question is whether the NFL and the NFL Players Association are aggressively policing the situation. Apparently they are not, or there would be more punishments.

Typically, the league and/or union gets involved when a player complains or when reports of an altercation during off-season work surface. As for the Lions, the fact that linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin also serves as the new NFLPA president raises the possibility that he blew the whistle. Which he absolutely should do, if the rules were being broken.

But they are certainly being broken everywhere. Do you think the Chargers haven’t attacked every OTA day with an enthusiasm unknown to humanity? Elsewhere, teams with inexperienced coaches may not sufficiently restrict fringe players who need to make a good impression if they are to have any chance of moving from the 90- to 53-man roster.

Although the Lions are solely to blame for the situation, it is only fair that they are offended by the inherent injustice of the situation. There is no way they are alone when it comes to going far in off-season training. It will be interesting to see if new NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell decides to treat Detroit’s situation not as the end, but as the beginning.