Claim: Texans Ran Illegal Workouts

The Houston Texans lost three offensive lineman for the season due to injuries during what were supposed to be non-contact drills last May. Dan Stevenson and Jordan Black both suffered labrum tears in their respective shoulders, while Chukky Okobi injured his triceps.

Black is now employed by the Jaguars, Okobi has no team just yet, and Stevenson's career is jeopardy (though he's technically still on the Texans). According to ESPN, Stevenson plans to sue the Texans, while Black and Fred Weary -- a former Texans' lineman -- have signed affidavits supporting Stevenson's claims.

The issue at hand, for those unfamiliar, is that there are specific rules in place concerning contact drills during certain times of the year. These drills in May are, by very specific rule, supposed to be non-contact. The players aren't even wearing pads other than their helmets. The focus of these drills is for technique and conditioning only. Due to the brutal nature of football, these are safeguards put in place to protect the bodies of NFL players. According to the claims of Stevenson -- which were, again, supported by Weary and Black -- the Texans were running full contact practices with the non-padded linemen. Not only was this under the watch of head coach Gary Kubiak, but it appears he was personally running the drills.

"It was a live blocking drill. There were people getting pancaked. Everyone's going as hard as he can," Stevenson said.

Furthermore, it seems as though complaints to the coaching staff fell on deaf ears. ESPN also reports that Kubiak ignored complaints and kept going with the full-contact drills, despite the injuries.

"I was the third offensive lineman who was done for the season, just from that drill," offensive tackle Jordan Black said. "If nobody's going to stand up, it's just going to continue."

Initially, Stevenson had his complaint rejected by the league, so he smuggled in his video camera and caught some very brief footage of what definitely appears to be full contact drills without pads.

I'm sure there are those who say the players could easily refuse to participate in the drills, but let's take a look at who these guys are. They were young guys fighting for roster spots, not pro-bowlers. Ignoring the head coach's orders would most certainly result in dismissal from the team.

Though there are no specific punishments outlined in the rules for teams violating this rule, it seems as though Gary Kubiak and his staff have some explaining to do. At the very least, they need not be running these drills again come May of 2009.