So, it turns out that Fred Davis “overslept.” That’s the official word from the Washington Redskins on why their rookie tight end, and second-round draft choice, missed the last day of minicamp practice on Sunday.

That doesn’t speak too well of young Mr. Davis. As several of my colleagues observed, had Davis been a rookie free agent, his career with the Redskins probably would have ended shortly after he woke, showed up at Redskin Park and explained what happened.

Davis, though, is a talented player. Even this weekend, when he was new to the offense, he was working with the second unit on some plays.

At this point, there isn’t a lot the Redskins can do to him. He’s not under contract, so fining him would be tough. Players get paid for attending minicamp, so they probably can dock him for that. Had there been another practice session, Jim Zorn or his position coach, Rennie Simmons, could have had him run laps or do “up-downs” for a while.

Davis faces plenty of questions from the media when rookies return to Redskin Park, around the middle of May (rookies can’t report for the summer until their college hold their graduations. That’s not bad for players whose schools are on the semester system. It puts those who attend schools on the quarter system at a disadvantage since their graduation dates usually aren’t until late May or June. Actually, this seems to be something of an obsolete rule. It was instituted by the NFL so players would not feel pressured to drop out of school or miss or reschedule exams so close to the end of the semester in order to start working out with teams. But most of the players who are going to be drafted don’t go to college in the spring semester of their draft year anyway. The rule does benefit players who didn’t think they would be drafted or signed as free agents and stayed in school to get their degrees, so it does some good).

Some of the Redskins coaches and administrators might think that’s punishment enough. And it will not be at all surprising if Davis finds his locker and car filled with alarm clocks, courtesy of his highly amused teammates.

No doubt, this will come up when Davis’ agent begins negotiating his contract. That could make things difficult because Davis isn’t going to be happy to lose bonus money over a missed minicamp practice. He might have to settle for a clause that penalizes him severly if this ever happens again, though.

The bigger concern for the Redskins is whether this is an isolated incident or an indication of things to come. Davis has left him self little margin for error.