Titans coach Fisher admits to violation of rules

[stevedogc]

This seems pretty cut and dry to me. It will be interesting to see what Goodell does anything about this. Probably nothing since Fisher is a part of the competition committee. If nothing does happen to the Titans, Kraft should speak up. Considering what happened going into the playoffs last season when there was speculation about some collusion between the Titans and Browns in the final week of the season. Which is also agains the rules.

ProFootballTalk.com - FISHER ADMITS TO VIOLATION OF THE RULES?

FISHER ADMITS TO VIOLATION OF THE RULES?
Posted by Mike Florio on October 6, 2008, 5:51 p.m. EDT
As expected, the Tennessee Titans have re-signed quarterback Chris Simms, only two days after cutting him. In so doing, coach Jeff Fisher basically admitted to violating the rules against having verbal agreements with players.

“Chris totally understood the move, and we assured him we’d get him back under contract and we did,” coach Jeff Fisher said.

Remarked a league insider in response, “Holy ****.”

Then the league insider was a bit more specific (but far less entertaining): “I’m not sure the league office is going to look very favorably upon that transaction and quote. It sure looks and sounds like a pre-existing agreement to manipulate the roster.”

The Titans dumped Simms on Saturday so that they could sign an extra punter, in the event that Criag Hentrich couldn’t play.

The reaction in some circles was to assume that the Titans and Simms had a wink-nod-belch-fart agreement in place with Simms, with Simms being told he’d be re-signed, but with neither Simms nor the Titans ever admitting to it.

And, amazingly, Fisher has essentially admitted to entering into a verbal understanding with Simms that he’d be brought back.

Complicating matters is that Fisher is the Co-Chair of the Competition Committee, and thus in our view he should be avoiding not only rules violations but any conduct that might appear to constitute a violation.

In the end, the Titans’ message to Simms was in line with our speculation from Saturday night: “Look, Chris, you’re already going to be paid for the week because you were on the team as of close of business on Tuesday. And you were going to be the third quarterback on Sunday. So we’re just going to slide you off the roster today, and we’ll bring you back next week.”

As we understand the rules, that’s simply not permitted. It now remains to be seen whether the league will do anything about it.

 

[ScottieC]

This seems pretty cut and dry to me. It will be interesting to see what Goodell does anything about this. Probably nothing since Fisher is a part of the competition committee. If nothing does happen to the Titans, Kraft should speak up. Considering what happened going into the playoffs last season when there was speculation about some collusion between the Titans and Browns in the final week of the season. Which is also agains the rules.

ProFootballTalk.com - FISHER ADMITS TO VIOLATION OF THE RULES?

FISHER ADMITS TO VIOLATION OF THE RULES?
Posted by Mike Florio on October 6, 2008, 5:51 p.m. EDT
As expected, the Tennessee Titans have re-signed quarterback Chris Simms, only two days after cutting him. In so doing, coach Jeff Fisher basically admitted to violating the rules against having verbal agreements with players.

“Chris totally understood the move, and we assured him we’d get him back under contract and we did,” coach Jeff Fisher said.

Remarked a league insider in response, “Holy ****.”

Then the league insider was a bit more specific (but far less entertaining): “I’m not sure the league office is going to look very favorably upon that transaction and quote. It sure looks and sounds like a pre-existing agreement to manipulate the roster.”

The Titans dumped Simms on Saturday so that they could sign an extra punter, in the event that Criag Hentrich couldn’t play.

The reaction in some circles was to assume that the Titans and Simms had a wink-nod-belch-fart agreement in place with Simms, with Simms being told he’d be re-signed, but with neither Simms nor the Titans ever admitting to it.

And, amazingly, Fisher has essentially admitted to entering into a verbal understanding with Simms that he’d be brought back.

Complicating matters is that Fisher is the Co-Chair of the Competition Committee, and thus in our view he should be avoiding not only rules violations but any conduct that might appear to constitute a violation.

In the end, the Titans’ message to Simms was in line with our speculation from Saturday night: “Look, Chris, you’re already going to be paid for the week because you were on the team as of close of business on Tuesday. And you were going to be the third quarterback on Sunday. So we’re just going to slide you off the roster today, and we’ll bring you back next week.”

As we understand the rules, that’s simply not permitted. It now remains to be seen whether the league will do anything about it.

and as a follow up, ESPN reports that Fisher did nothing wrong and Bill Belichick was really to blame for this incident. They are not sure how Bill was responsible, but a source at ESPN said "we don't know if this is tied to Belichick 100%, but it's got to be...right?"

 

[NJPatsfan26]

and as a follow up, ESPN reports that Fisher did nothing wrong and Bill Belichick was really to blame for this incident. They are not sure how Bill was responsible, but a source at ESPN said "we don't know if this is tied to Belichick 100%, but it's got to be...right?"

HAHAHA....of course....Bill is the root of all evil in the NFL....blame him for all....

 

[tombonneau]

Nothing will come of this. Hell, quotes from Kerry Collins last year after the Week 17 Titans-Colts embarrassment basically revealed that Fisher had a wink-nod agreement with Dungy to throw an NFL game and nothing happened.

 

[Deus Irae]

Teams do this all the time.

 

[billdog3484]

I feel like the NFL loves him, but they have to fine him. I mean, the guy admitted to violating a rule. Unless this is Washington DC, he's getting fined.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Teams do this all the time.

Only morons talk publicly about it. And in a league obcessed with public perception, morons should be precluded from sitting on the competition committee at a mininum...

 

[PatsfanTN]

This seems a bit of a strech imo

 

[SVN]

well, all you will hear is that 'the patriots do it all the time'

 

[Lloyd_Christmas]

This is the problem with the NFL. They do nothing about rules violations until eventually, someone crosses some abitrary line.

Like BB did with the taping of defensive signals. Then they go overboard in making an example of that person even though it was THEIR APATHY in the past that encouraged the offender to continue and/or push the envelope.

They really need to consistently uphold the rules and punish teams in a manner that fits the crime each time, rather than go overboard arbitrarily later to "set an example".

Other issues that this applies to:
Tampering with a player
Public statements like the ones Al Davis recently made (How many times has Polian done this kind of crap against other teams, coaches, and refs?)
Fake injuries in order to IR a fringe player rather than cut him
Stealing signals (We all know that various teams were using audio, video, and scrambling technology to gain an advantage consistanly leading up to spygate) The NFL needs to define what is legal and punish the rest consistantly and with measured punishments not example setters.

 

[jmt57]

In this case it really is no big deal. It appears that PFT is just trying to stir up controversy. Simms was paid and he was free to sign with another team if that's what he wanted to do. Many of us were advocating that Tampa Bay work out this exact same type of deal with the last player on their roster when it looked like they were going to need a kicker for one game when Matt Bryant lost his son two weeks ago.

On the other hand I will say that it was pretty stupid of Fisher to admit this is what he did publicly; being on the Competition Committee, he should be more familiar with the rule than anybody else. And of course it is true that if a certain other coach did this then he would be criticized for his arrogance, thumbing his nose at the league and other teams, and of course, for cheating. It is rather hypocritical for certain people to nitpick every little thing Belichick says and does while giving people like Fisher - who essentially threw a game that may have kept the Browns out of the playoffs - a free pass.

 

[BradyFTW!]

ROSTERGATE. This casts all of their previous seasons into doubt. 5-0*