Possible reason for delay in Jets tampering ruling?

[1960Pats]

The league seems to be holding off on issuing any punishments. The Falcons already admitted to cheating and I think the Browns did too. I think they are waiting for the Wells report and dumping all the punishments out at once to bury them with Deflategate because that is the only one anyone seems to care about.

That said, I think the Jets will get a nominal fine. I think they deserve to be punished for stupidity, but what Woody Johnson did was more stupid than anything really bad. It really isn't that big of a deal.

It's a bigger deal than taping coaches signals from the wrong place, and Goody's Woody did it twice in less than a year.

 

[patman52]

The Patriots have a history of "questionable" deals? Please elaborate...I know there are "fairminded non-homer" types that have strong distaste for long time Patriot fans but ,unless I'm getting Alzheimer's, I cannot remember the last time the Pats were involved in a "questionable deal" aimed at hurting the Jets.

Most fans believe Kraft contacted BB before asking the jets for permission to talk to him.

 

[patman52]

In a sense I agree, BUT, and it's a big BUT, just because Johnson wasn't smart enough to realize the implications of what he said, doesn't make the tampering less valid. But the key factor in what kind of punishment the Jets should get, is the fact that Johnson had already gotten a written warning about this with the calendar year.

If the league doesn't act vigorously, then they might as well make tampering legal all year round, instead of just a couple of days. The NFLPA wouldn't stand in the way..

This is my take, just get rid of the tampering provision if you are going to allow the owner of a team tosay he wants your player to play for him and would pay him the money that the present team wants him to redo.

I actually thought SF got a bad break with the tampering decision, Chicago called them for a trade of Briggs, who was tagged, then (SF) called the agent to find out how much money he wanted long term.
Chicago was actively trying to move him to SF and SF still got hit.

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

If you go by precedent, and we all know Roger is a lawyer, in 2010 PFT reported this:

Jason La Canfora of NFL Network reports that the league has nailed the Lions for tampering with Chiefs players. The Lions will lose a seventh-round pick acquired from the Broncos in 2011, and the Chiefs and Lions will swap fifth-round picks.

It’s a 14-spot jump for the Chiefs in round five, from 23rd position to ninth.

The charges first came to light in December 2010, arising from statements made earlier in the year by Lions defensive coordinator (and former Chiefs defensive coordinator and head coach) Gunther Cunningham.
“[Kansas City] keeps wanting to dump their players,” Cunningham said in February 2010. “I would like to be there to catch a lot of them, because I know a couple of those guys.”

So that was all it took for the league to find tampering. And this was a defensive coordinator, not the head coach, not the GM. Note that he didn't even mention any players names, so if that is worth a 7th round pick and a 14 spot move up in the fifth round. What is the penalty for an owner who said flat out that he would have signed a particular player for the amount he signed with the Pats for, and that he would sign him again if he could?

The punishment for the Jets HAS to be at least this, but it should be even more because a) it was the owner and b) he named a specific player.

If the Jets received any (or no) punishment less than this, if I was Kraft, I would appeal it and point to the 2008 case of SF tampering with Lance Briggs (that penalty was SF lost a 5th and swapped 3rd round picks). This should be the penalty IF Goodell has any consistency. The Pats would swap picks 96 for pick 70, and get the Jets fifth round pick.

 

[Ivan]

Most fans believe Kraft contacted BB before asking the jets for permission to talk to him.

There's a really big difference between what some fans think and what Woody Johnson actually did on national TV. If Revis ends up on the Jets the Patriots should get their next two first round picks. It would be the most egregious case of tampering the NFL has seen.

 

[MitchKumstein]

I hate to be a pessimist about this, but given that NFL seems to love ****ting on the Pats, I doubt that the Patriots are going to get anything from this. I suspect that the jests will get a fine and that's it.

Besides, the league wants parity. They'd want to avoid taking something from a crap team and giving it to the Super Bowl Champs. Particularly when the crap team is in the biggest market in the county.

I really hope I'm wrong about this though.

 

[tasmlab]

I thought that statement was so innocuous that I'd prefer no punishment. Seems petty. Or at worse a $20K fine or something.

 

[Joker]

Most fans believe Kraft contacted BB before asking the jets for permission to talk to him.

"most fans" at Jets Insider perhaps. I've never heard of this and I'm as die hard a Pats fan as anyone I know. I just did an exhaustive google search using all forms of "Kraft, tampered, Belichick, Jets,Parcells" and all I came up with is the Parcells charge,never ever proved , that the Patriots tampered with BB in 1999. That was viewed as sour grapes from Parcells then but it seems YOU have urban mythed it into a truism. Perhaps hanging around being buddy buddy with Jet fans all the time has skewed your perception a bit.

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

"most fans" at Jets Insider perhaps. I've never heard of this and I'm as die hard a Pats fan as anyone I know. I just did an exhaustive google search using all forms of "Kraft, tampered, Belichick, Jets,Parcells" and all I came up with is the Parcells charge,never ever proved , that the Patriots tampered with BB in 1999. That was viewed as sour grapes from Parcells then but it seems YOU have urban mythed it into a truism. Perhaps hanging around being buddy buddy with Jet fans all the time has skewed your perception a bit.

I lived on Long Island back then and I clearly remember Mike Francesa (BFF of Parcells) saying the day after the infamous ****tail napkin resignation, that BB was going to the Pats. LOL I remember Francessa going on and on, about what a giant mistake BB was making and that the Jets were clearly a better franchise and that BB was committing career suicide...

 

[1960Pats]

I lived on Long Island back then and I clearly remember Mike Francesa (BFF of Parcells) saying the day after the infamous ****tail napkin resignation, that BB was going to the Pats. LOL I remember Francessa going on and on, about what a giant mistake BB was making and that the Jets were clearly a better franchise and that BB was committing career suicide...

Belichick resigned after the Pats had contacted the Jets about him for our HC, which is when Parcells pulled his phony resignation to try and keep him in New Jersey. The whole world knew then that Belichick was coming to NE. I guess Francesa was awake for that whole fiasco.

 

[Rob0729]

In a sense I agree, BUT, and it's a big BUT, just because Johnson wasn't smart enough to realize the implications of what he said, doesn't make the tampering less valid. But the key factor in what kind of punishment the Jets should get, is the fact that Johnson had already gotten a written warning about this with the calendar year.

If the league doesn't act vigorously, then they might as well make tampering legal all year round, instead of just a couple of days. The NFLPA wouldn't stand in the way..

He deserves to be punished for his stupidity. Ignorance of the law or, in this case, just plain ignorance is not a valid defense. But even if this was a calculated attempt to tamper, I find it relatively minor. I would rather see this than all the tampering that went on at the Combines last week where GMs and agents got together and started to negotiate for players who are about to be free agents, but are under contract by other teams get punished than this. Everyone knows it goes on, but they look the other way.

I argued with Spygate that other teams did it. I argued with Deflategate that if true, it was a minor offense. I am not going to be a hypocrite and say that this is a big offense when I know it is a nothing thing just because the Jets did it. And I am not going to get into the same hatred filled fake outrage that Patriots haters have when the Pats get accused of something for when the Jets get accused of something.

Give Johnson a fine. Take a way a sixth or a seventh rounder from them (I don't even think this rises to that level to require a draft pick. But if you want to argue Johnson is a repeat offender and a draft pick penalty is worthy I won't argue). And let's be done with it.

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

If you go by precedent, and we all know Roger is a lawyer, in 2010 PFT reported this:

No we don't, because he isn't an attorney. His predecessor Tagliabue was but Roger got his BA and Washington and Jefferson and then went to work for the Jets. Had he had a JD he likely would have handled more than a few things differently....

 

[RayClay]

The tampering case has actually been settled. No one has noticed because it's a total snowjob and was lost among all the recent snow in the area.

 

[Casanova Frankenstein]

Most fans believe Kraft contacted BB before asking the jets for permission to talk to him.

I never heard that before, the only thing I heard about that whole situation was the Jets moving Big Tuna to GM whilst promoting Belichick to HC in order to block the Pats.

 

[convertedpatsfan]

Most fans believe Kraft contacted BB before asking the jets for permission to talk to him.

You can believe anything is happening in secret. And in fact, some of it is.

But the guy said it to the media in front of dozens of cameras and tape recorders. This isn't an allegation. It would be the textbook example of tampering, except nobody would be that stupid to do it this way. Except for the Jets.

There is no investigation. There's none necessary. It was unbelievably the most straight-forward case of tampering one could hope to find and the league is still hemming and hawing. My guess is if there's any penalty (doubtful), it will be announced a few minutes prior to the Patriots Deflategate announcement so it gets swept under the rug in the news cycle.

 

[1960Pats]

He deserves to be punished for his stupidity. Ignorance of the law or, in this case, just plain ignorance is not a valid defense. But even if this was a calculated attempt to tamper, I find it relatively minor. I would rather see this than all the tampering that went on at the Combines last week where GMs and agents got together and started to negotiate for players who are about to be free agents, but are under contract by other teams get punished than this. Everyone knows it goes on, but they look the other way.

I argued with Spygate that other teams did it. I argued with Deflategate that if true, it was a minor offense. I am not going to be a hypocrite and say that this is a big offense when I know it is a nothing thing just because the Jets did it. And I am not going to get into the same hatred filled fake outrage that Patriots haters have when the Pats get accused of something for when the Jets get accused of something.

Give Johnson a fine. Take a way a sixth or a seventh rounder from them (I don't even think this rises to that level to require a draft pick. But if you want to argue Johnson is a repeat offender and a draft pick penalty is worthy I won't argue). And let's be done with it.

If taping changeable coaches signals from the wrong place is punishable by loss of a 1st round pick and a large fine, then whatever the Jets get for this second tampering offense is warranted. And because the Pats are the offended team, they should benefit from any penalty the Jets pay. I don't see how any Pats fan wouldn't want as much as we can get from the NFL.

Even if we aren't confident that Goody will come down hard on Woody, I'd still like to see it happen.

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

Even if we aren't confident that Goody will come down hard on Woody, I'd still like to see it happen.

I wonder if part of the delay is to see "what the damages are". If the Pats release Revis and he signs with the Jets, there has to be punishment or the whole concept of tampering is meaningless. There is likely two levels of punishment, a slap on the wrist if he stays with the Pats or signs with another team other than the Jets and a more severe punishment if he signs with the Jets. I can't believe that Mr. Kraft would sit by and let the second scenario ( signing with the Jets) go unpunished.
That is the only logical explanation I can think of for the delay in coming to a conclusion. The evidence is pretty clear cut. The PR person said he couldn't discuss a player under contract to a another team and then the owner does just that (for the second time in a year).

 

[shmessy]

3/3/2015 @ 6:45am

Manish Mehta @MMehtaNYDN
Sources: Jets' Woody Johnson involved in serious internal discussions to make a push for Revis http://nydn.us/1wPAqfi pic.twitter.com/xX3X6bJpIj

 

[BSR]

3/3/2015 @ 6:45am

Manish Mehta @MMehtaNYDN
Sources: Jets' Woody Johnson involved in serious internal discussions to make a push for Revis http://nydn.us/1wPAqfi pic.twitter.com/xX3X6bJpIj

They aren't "internal" discussions when you leak them to the media. Its like the Jets know they aren't going to get punished and are doubling down so at the very least they can drive the price up. Has there ever been a more blatant case of tampering?

 

[chasa]

"Listen if Denver doesn't want Peyton Ill take Peyton.. Ill give Peyton all the money he wants" -Woody Johnson

"Sorry guys, I mispoke silly me"