Jets broke rules with Abraham trade
 

THe NFL and Players Association does not police their rules.

No team is supposed to franchise a player with the intent of trading them.
Clearly this is what happened with Abraham.
By cheating they got an extra first round pick. the league should have stepped in.

If the Patriots had taken a similar strategy with Viniaterri, perhaps they could have received a second or third round choice...but the Pats follow the rules.

I still think we could, and should, have with Givens. Unfortunately the league has rules like this which are clearly ignored and they just sit there and do nothing.

Are you saying that the Patriots did not franchised Tebucky with the intent of trading him??

Clearly they did. But the Patriots having done it doesn't mean it's right for other teams.

The rule doesn't really need to be policed. Trading a player can have a large impact on a team's free agent signing success, depending on how the trade occurred (i.e did the player have a say, was the outcome favorable for both sides, etc.) I figure that the Jets preferred that the deal happen specifically with Atlanta in order to keep the player happy and their reputation relatively intact.

No, it doesn't. But Patriots fans should, IMO, not be complaining about the Jets' actions when the Pats did the very same thing in 2003.

Miguel, I'm almost certain that the Patriots and Jets were not the only team in NFL history to make trades like that. The NFL has not done a very good job of enforcing many of their rules. Tampering runs rampant in this league. I have yet to see any team punished for that practice.

franchise designation
 

If the Patriots did it with Tebucky Jones they should have been punished as well.
Did they actually franchise or transition Tebucky?

It is preposterous to labe l a player with a "franchise" designation as critical to your team and then trade them away less than a month later.

I agree with you 100% on that. When everyone is breaking the rules, it is hard justifying singling out a single team.

I agree...and I think all know there always is tampering a great deal of the time..when Ted Washington signs a deal a minute after miidnight...II mean..how did it happen IF there was not a lot of talk before??? Not complaining specifically about that, but using that as an example. Bentley supposedly had a deal with Phillie but I guess feared the NFL mIGHT do something and jumped to the Brown. We still don't know for dure Givens had one with Cleve....tampering is rampant and the NFL policing is more it's still a rule don't abuse it..and yet, it goes on..more and more. If there are rules..clean it up OR make up other rules that will allow a window or some such thing to control it. Have other teams used the franchise rule like that??
I am sure thre are cases...