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Mike McCarthy, Jeff Saturday unclear on contact ban

There appears to be a disconnect between teams and the league on what constitutes a violation of the league-wide ban on live contact during offseason workouts.

The Seattle Seahawks were docked their final two organized team activity sessions and a workout day for holding an overly boisterous practice. Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy acknowledged Tuesday that he still isn't sure how a violation can be triggered.

"Frankly, I don't know what the line is," McCarthy said, according to The Associated Press.

The league's management council and the players' union are responsible for policing the contact. Packers center Jeff Saturday, a member of the NFL Players Association's executive committee, made it sound like he doesn't know where the line is, either.

"I think it's been difficult for all of us," said Saturday, who signed with the Packers in the offseason. "When it's written in legalese, it's totally different than what you do on the field. It's very hard to know what is crossing the line, what's too much, what's too little. I think you kind of put coaches out in an area where it's very uncomfortable for those guys, and for a guy like me it's very uncomfortable, because I have guys coming to me, asking me, you don't really know a definitive answer. So we're trying to figure it out."

There hasn't been sufficient communication to this point, but Saturday sees the implementation of the ban as a work in progress.

"(The NFLPA) needs to draw the line and let the coaches know, 'Hey, this is enough, this is too much, you can go up to here,' so everybody is clear," Saturday said.

The question is why it's taking so long to clarify the guidelines.

Follow Dan Hanzus on Twitter @danhanzus.

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