Let me get this straight: There were Ravens players complaining about the offseason working conditions at The Castle?
And moaning about being kept too long on the field and in the meeting rooms?
And practicing too hard?
And this is why the team was reprimanded by the NFL for offseason training violations?
You gotta be kidding me.
Let's go over a typical OTA (organized team activity), like the one being held this week, and see what horrible torture the Ravens endure on a daily basis.
For openers, they practice for two hours on lush, well-manicured fields.
They attend meetings in a beautiful building that looks like a posh resort, right down to the cherrywood staircase, huge stone fireplace and marble floors in the lobby.
No, it's not exactly a sweatshop out there at 1 Winning Drive, Owings Mills.
The food in the cafeteria is provided by Classic Catering. There's a players lounge with a pool table, pinball machines, video games and big-screen TVs.
There's a gleaming weight room, a basketball court, two racquetball courts, a sauna, a steam room and a whirlpool.
Did I mention the putting green out front?
Or the fishing pond out back?
Let me ask you something: Do you work in a place like that?
Me, I work in a place where they run out of paper clips and the microwave oven is splattered with dried spaghetti sauce.
And the pretzels get stuck in the snack machine, and you have to rock it back and forth and risk having the thing fall over and crush you just to avoid getting ripped off for 75 cents.
No, the problem isn't getting the Ravens to hang out at The Castle. If anything, it's getting them to leave.
Look, if I worked in a place like that, I'd lock myself in the players lounge with a plate of steamed shrimp if they tried to make me go home.
But somehow, a few of the Ravens found all this to be too much to handle at the team's first OTA a few weeks ago.
So they complained to the players union about late meetings and too much time spent on the field after practice.
And when the NFL looked into the complaints, the Ravens were also cited for running a few drills that were too intense and high-tempo.
Personally, I've seen enough Ravens practices to know it can get a little chippy out there -- even when the players aren't wearing pads in the offseason.
They're not exactly playing croquet. You have a lot of big guys with high levels of testosterone running around at full speed. Occasionally, they're going to bang into each other harder than the coaches might like.
Which is when tempers flare, as they say.
But since the NFL didn't specify which plays crossed the line, Ravens coach John Harbaugh didn't really know how to measure his team's tempo and intensity in drills.
"That's a little more difficult" to determine, he said after Tuesday's practice.
"I'm sure there were instances where it got a little more competitive than it should have."
So now the NFL is slapping the Ravens on the wrist and making them cancel next week's practices as punishment.
It's all much ado about nothing. Except I'm sure it ticks off Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome. And I'm sure it ticks off Harbaugh, too.
Publicly, Harbaugh tried to put the best face on the whole thing when he spoke to the media this week.
He said he was accountable for the late meetings and the players being kept on the field too long and everything else.
And he said not being able to conduct next week's special teams camp wouldn't hurt the team since the Ravens had gotten all their work done in the earlier OTAs.
But he also seemed to feel that the controversy, which managed to make headlines all over the country, didn't reflect well on the Ravens, either.
"I think it hurts us in the sense that it's a little bit embarrassing," he said. "I don't want the Ravens' name out there for losing two OTA practices."
Uh-oh. Sounds like Harbaugh might be a little more annoyed than he's letting on.
Pretty soon we'll probably find out who those Ravens are who ratted out the team to the players union.
Wouldn't want to be those players when word gets out.
Not with training camp set to begin next month.
Listen to Kevin Cowherd Tuesdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. with Jerry Coleman on Fox 1370 AM Sports.