Patriots use OTA practice cancellation to do some team building

Earlier today, the New England Patriots announced that they had cancelled this week’s organized team activities: the reigning world champions were originally scheduled to hold voluntary practice sessions on Monday and Tuesday, but head coach Bill Belichick is apparently happy with the state of the team at the moment and decided to erase both of them from the players’ and coaches’ schedule.

Despite the cancellation of their workouts, however, the Patriots were still rather active on Monday. They may not have hit the practice fields, but the players were still at Gillette Stadium — and they went on to spend the day trying to improve as a team, quite literally: the club held a team building activity today and, according to The Athletic’s Jeff Howe, went to play paint ball.

Seeing the Patriots use their OTAs to improve team chemistry is nothing new. Last year, for example, the club also cancelled their two final sessions to do something other than practicing: on one of the days, they drove to Boston to visit the Red Sox’ Fenway Park, on the other they were given a history lesson about the game. It will be interesting to see what Belichick may have in store for tomorrow.