NFL lockout costs rookies an orientation

The NFL lockout has claimed its first scheduling casualty. The league announced Tuesday that the rookie symposium, slated to begin June 26 in Canton, Ohio, has been scratched from the calendar. While teams have had to cancel OTAs and rookie minicamps in recent weeks, this represents the first league-wide event to be canceled.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the decision was made because of "uncertainty of the labor issues we are facing and the logistical challenges of conducting the symposium."

The symposium is a way for the league to educate its newest players on everything from personal security to financial management to life skills. Most teams already have their own versions of the symposium in the form of a rookie orientation program, and it is expected that those programs will become even more in-depth as a replacement for the symposium once the players are allowed to return to the team complexes.

"The symposium is a large, complex event involving many professionals and others," Aiello said. "In fairness, we could not continue to keep their commitment on hold."

When the rookies and other players do return, there will be several new rules in place affecting their safety. The NFL owners voted 32-0 to pass three rules tweaks at their spring meeting Tuesday.

The changes expand the definition of a "defenseless player" to include kickers or punters during a return, a quarterback after a change of possession, and a receiver who "has not clearly become a runner"; make the "launching" rule more comprehensive to include players who leave both "prior to contact to spring forward and upward," and a player who "uses any part of his helmet;" and allow officials to use their judgment in penalizing a defender for an accidental glancing or grazing hit to the head of a quarterback.

The league also announced that teams will be held responsible if their players accumulate too many illegal or flagrant hits. While the exact structure of the rule has not been decided, NFL vice president Adolpho Birch cited "club accountability" and said teams could be fined or even stripped of draft choices if the number of violations was too great.