PAPatsjunkie
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Florio has Peter King's take this morning:
I'm waiting for you to come down hard on the teams, or even just one team, who tampered this year, NFL. It's a league rule, and you even issued a memo about it, sound familiar? Time to hand out large fines and take away draft picks, please.
POSTED 10:58 a.m. EST, March 3, 2008
LEAGUE WARNED TEAMS ABOUT TAMPERING
Peter King of SI.com reports in his Monday Morning Quarterback column that the league office issued a memo to all teams on January 31 reminding them not to engage in early discussions with free agents.
Said the memo, a copy of which was obtained by King: "You are specifically reminded that any contact -- direct or indirect -- by one club with players under contract to another club, about potential future employment, is not permitted. Such contacts could potentially interfere with the employer-employee relationship of the second club. Further, any public or private statement of interest, qualified or unqualified, in another club's player to the player's agent or representative, or to the news media, is a violation of the Anti-Tampering Policy.
"These rules are in effect at all times that a player remains under contract; the anticipated expiration of a player contract at the beginning of the upcoming League year (that is, a player's expectation that he will soon become a free agent) does not excuse impermissible contact prior to such contract expiration.''
But because the league doesn't investigate potential violations of this rule absent a complaint from one of the teams, there likely won't be any fallout from, for example, the strong possibility that the Dolphins had advance contact with 49ers guard Justin Smiley before signing him to a contract within 27 minutes after the free-agency period opened.
King also hints that the Eagles tampered with former Pats cornerback Asante Samuel, who signed with Philly on Friday. "[H]ow did I know the Eagles would be the leaders in the clubhouse for Asante, including details about the money in the deal, nine days ago?" King writes.
King's bottom line, with which we firmly agree: "We've got to stop pretending this doesn't exist, and the league has to stop selectively enforcing some rules and not others. If there's an anti-tampering rule, the NFL must enforce it the way it enforces other rules."
I'm waiting for you to come down hard on the teams, or even just one team, who tampered this year, NFL. It's a league rule, and you even issued a memo about it, sound familiar? Time to hand out large fines and take away draft picks, please.