PFT: NFL sends tampering memo

[PAPatsjunkie]

Florio has Peter King's take this morning:

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.

 

[BelichickFan]

Re: Tampering

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.

Yep, I'm waiting too - and we'll both be waiting a LONG time.

 

[upstater1]

Re: Tampering

The NFL ignored the Jets filming. They ignored the Dolphins stealing signals. The NFL always ignores its own memos. No wonder Belichick ignored it too. This wasn't an act of hubris. Belichick was just following SOP. The NFL selectively enforces rules.

 

[Spiral]

Re: Tampering

Because violations of this rule can have a more significant impact on the competitive balance in the league, Goodell's overreaction in the spygate case has essentially tied his hands on this one. He can either look the other way, or he has to start ripping #1s from violators. His choices are limited.

 

[hwc]

Re: Tampering

Goodell's overreaction in the spygate case has essentially tied his hands on this one. He can either look the other way, or he has to start ripping #1s from violators. His choices are limited.

Yep. That's half the result of Goodell's incredible mishandling of spygate. The other half is that now he can't put the whole silly little thing behind him and move on.

All he needed to do was quietly hand out some mid-range slap on the wrist to the Pats two days after spygate broke and say "that's that". Instead, he stoked the media fire to make himself look important and handed down a penalty far out of proportion to the nature of the infraction.

Now, he's boxed himself into a corner.

 

[Seneschal2]

Re: Tampering

...handed down a penalty far out of proportion to the nature of the infraction.

Now, he's boxed himself into a corner.

Across the board with enforcement -- no exceptions.

The Philly tampering ought to be investigated FIRST. And if guilty, proper penalty handed down. If not, some owner has a strong case vs someone -- and on and on we go. Can't turn back the clock Commish -- no matter how much you'd now like to.

 

[bigjunk1]

Re: Tampering

The way that things are going the only team that would be busted for tampering would be the Pats.



Let sleeping dogs lie.

 

[SoCal Pmen]

Re: Tampering

Yep. That's half the result of Goodell's incredible mishandling of spygate. The other half is that now he can't put the whole silly little thing behind him and move on.

All he needed to do was quietly hand out some mid-range slap on the wrist to the Pats two days after spygate broke and say "that's that". Instead, he stoked the media fire to make himself look important and handed down a penalty far out of proportion to the nature of the infraction.

Now, he's boxed himself into a corner.

Agree with you whole-heartedly. For whatever reason he decided to prolong his decision over a week's time and it created a snowball effect on the league. My guess is that he was trying to establish or assert himself as the new sheriff in town and now that teams continue to follow the league memo's he's trapped by his own conscience on whether to call more negative attention to himself and doing what's right.

 

[Maroney's Dreads]

Re: Tampering

Yep. That's half the result of Goodell's incredible mishandling of spygate. The other half is that now he can't put the whole silly little thing behind him and move on.

All he needed to do was quietly hand out some mid-range slap on the wrist to the Pats two days after spygate broke and say "that's that". Instead, he stoked the media fire to make himself look important and handed down a penalty far out of proportion to the nature of the infraction.

Now, he's boxed himself into a corner.

He hasn't boxed himself into a corner at all. Every football fan wanted to see the Pats brought down a notch. They couldn't rely on beating the Pats on the field, so they settled for trying to drag the franchise, coach, and players through the mud.

Now that we're talking about all these other teams breaking these rules, ESPN and the Goodell don't care anymore. This won't amount to anything at all.

What's worse: Having a cameraman on the sidelines, or talking to players before you're allowed to and gaining a clear advantage in getting players? It's pretty clear to me

 

[PatsFanJess]

Re: Tampering

Wait...theres teams in the NFL who cheat by tampering?!!! God, it must be those damn Patriots again who just cant stop cheating! Wasn't cheating to win 3 SBs enough?!

Oh wait, it's not the Patriots...
oh then who cares everyone does that. no big deal.

 

[Welker83]

Re: Tampering

Yeah sure! Sorry guys but it just won't happen. It's too hard to prove because it requires the Agent/player to tattle on the Team... Which is a perfect way to get blacklisted, and definatly a smaller contract.

Remember it's the agent that handles the negotiations, and a guy like rosenhaus has over 100 clients...how the hell can anyone prove anything if he has legitimate buisiness with every team in the league.

Now if there was a videotape...that would be a different matter. That would completely document the crime and it should be punished accordingly.

 

[jmt57]

Re: Tampering

If the Eagles were to be hit with a comparable fine, the reaction from Senator Comcast, I mean Senator Specter, would be priceless.

 

[Deus Irae]

Re: Tampering

Yeah sure! Sorry guys but it just won't happen. It's too hard to prove because it requires the Agent/player to tattle on the Team... Which is a perfect way to get blacklisted, and definatly a smaller contract.

Remember it's the agent that handles the negotiations, and a guy like rosenhaus has over 100 clients...how the hell can anyone prove anything if he has legitimate buisiness with every team in the league.

Now if there was a videotape...that would be a different matter. That would completely document the crime and it should be punished accordingly.

Peter King knowing actual dollar figures in the case of Samuel and the Eagles pretty much shows that this would be easily proven if the league wanted it done. Commissioner Clouseau has been exposed, and his lack of action on this issue will just make his tenure that much more of a joke. As I noted when 'spygate' broke out, this was a commissioner who was more interested in trying to instill a hardass image than in doing things in a smart and appropriate manner. He's a clown, and the sooner he's out of office, the better.

 

[Watson's IQ]

Re: Tampering

Tampering is a lot more difficult to prove than the spying thing, for better or for worse.

Allegations of tampering are tossed around all the time by teams, but actually proving it would probably require the player himself to blow the whistle, and I don't see why it would be to any player's advantage to do that. Unless you actually catch the GM with a phone in their hand, there are plenty of ways you can get the word to someone early ("Hey, Guy X, you played in college with Guy Y, let him know we're interested", etc). As much as we want to get all high and mighty because of what happened with spygate (and I feel that way myself sometimes too), there is a whole lot of gray area here as well.

 

[Deus Irae]

Re: Tampering

Tampering is a lot more difficult to prove than the spying thing, for better or for worse.

Allegations of tampering are tossed around all the time by teams, but actually proving it would probably require the player himself to blow the whistle, and I don't see why it would be to any player's advantage to do that. Unless you actually catch the GM with a phone in their hand, there are plenty of ways you can get the word to someone early ("Hey, Guy X, you played in college with Guy Y, let him know we're interested", etc). As much as we want to get all high and mighty because of what happened with spygate (and I feel that way myself sometimes too), there is a whole lot of gray area here as well.

Commissioner Clouseau, in the Spygate case and the ridiculous player suspensions, has made it clear that he's not finding any gray area.

 

[Watson's IQ]

Re: Tampering

Peter King knowing actual dollar figures in the case of Samuel and the Eagles pretty much shows that this would be easily proven if the league wanted it done.

Why? It's not against league rules for a team to know how much they're going to offer a player before free agency starts, only to communicate it to that player. Why couldn't Peter King knowing the contract details have come from a leak in the Eagles front office? I don't see any way in which that proves that they communicated the details to Asante before they were supposed to. Everyone knew he wasn't returning to the Pats, I'm sure plenty of teams were getting offers ready.

I'm not saying for sure they didn't tamper, just refuting your notion that Peter King "knowing" the terms of the deal makes it easy to prove that tampering occurred.

 

[Zeke_Mowatt]

Re: Tampering

Why? It's not against league rules for a team to know how much they're going to offer a player before free agency starts, only to communicate it to that player. Why couldn't Peter King knowing the contract details have come from a leak in the Eagles front office? I don't see any way in which that proves that they communicated the details to Asante before they were supposed to. Everyone knew he wasn't returning to the Pats, I'm sure plenty of teams were getting offers ready.

I'm not saying for sure they didn't tamper, just refuting your notion that Peter King "knowing" the terms of the deal makes it easy to prove that tampering occurred.

Maybe, maybe not, but I still had a fun time writing Senator Spector a nice email through his web page suggesting in the interest of neutrality and his lack of faith in the NFL front office, he investigate these tampering accusations with as much, if not more, ferocity than he did spygate. After all, rampant tampering could be an even bigger violation of anti-trust issues than one team video taping another with no proof of illegal usage. Will it do anything? Duh, of course not, but it's still fun to let the pompous ass know I know he's a jerkoff and put it to him plainly.

 

[Deus Irae]

Re: Tampering

Why? It's not against league rules for a team to know how much they're going to offer a player before free agency starts, only to communicate it to that player. Why couldn't Peter King knowing the contract details have come from a leak in the Eagles front office? I don't see any way in which that proves that they communicated the details to Asante before they were supposed to. Everyone knew he wasn't returning to the Pats, I'm sure plenty of teams were getting offers ready.

I'm not saying for sure they didn't tamper, just refuting your notion that Peter King "knowing" the terms of the deal makes it easy to prove that tampering occurred.

He knew the terms of the deal. There couldn't be terms without there having been discussions. Please don't tell me that you're foolish enough to think that Samuel got a 'take it or leave it' offer from the Eagles on day 1 and immediately said "Yes, Sir!". Even Commissioner Clouseau isn't that clueless.

 

[LiveShot]

Re: Tampering

So the Pats lost a #1 draft choice because the stooge in charge and his minions decided that the only way to derail the Pats victory train was to inforce the rules on a SELECTIVE BASIS. Everybody cheats but only the Pats lose a 1st round draft choice. The commish should be fired and the Pats should regain the lost draft pick.
Somebody should post the email address of the NFL on this website.

 

[Spiral]

Re: Tampering

The Philly tampering ought to be investigated FIRST.

Don't worry--I'm sure Arlen Spector will be on this one real soon.