John Harbaugh defends decision to not put Ed Reed on injury reports

Ravens coach John Harbaugh doesn't feel he or the organization he works for has violated any rules when it comes to not placing Ed Reed on any recent injury reports.

Last Wednesday, Reed revealed he had a torn labrum in his shoulder. The revelation caused a minor stir considering it was not publicly known he was dealing with that kind of injury.

The NFL decided to look into the matter and is reviewing Ravens' practice and game tapes to see how much Reed has been practicing.

"What they'll find with Ed is that he's practiced 100 percent of the time and he hasn't missed any game time with the injury," Harbaugh said. "Our understanding of the rule has been if they don't miss any time at all according to the injury then it doesn't have to be on the injury report."

On Friday, Harbaugh said 25 to 30 players are dealing with minor injuries but have been able to fully participate in practice. Rather than place all of them on the injury report, the Ravens have kept their daily lists to a minimum. For Sunday's game against the Texans, the Ravens listed five total players on the injury report while Houston listed 15.

This would explain why Baltimore appeared healthier than it probably has been, especially before Ray Lewis (triceps) and Lardarius Webb (ACL) sustained season-ending injuries.

The NFL has cracked down on injury report violators recently. The league fined Washington and Buffalo $20,000 each for not being as forthcoming as it would have liked -- the Redskins for not disclosing a Robert Griffin III concussion and the Bills for not mentioning Mario Williams had a wrist injury.

Harbaugh said he didn't believe the Ravens had done anything wrong but that the franchise will adhere to whatever the NFL decides.

"I'm very confident that we understand that rule as well as anyone in the league," Harbaugh said. "We've kept the injury report very tight. We've kept it to the guys who have to be on the injury report. Not that we're trying to hide any injuries, but we could do what some other teams do and put a bunch of guys on there. And I'm just as happy to do that. We could put all the guys on the injury report. If they'd rather us do that, we'll do that. Whatever they tell us do, we'll do. We're trying to follow the rules."


(cbssports.com)