This “Tampering Window” Period Is Getting Stupid

[Joey007]

Why even have a tampering window anymore? They should just start Free Agency all at once so it’s more like it used to be.

It’s also seeming like taking visits isn’t something that’s very necessary for many players anymore. Hopefully they change this setup in future offseasons.

 

[Froob]

Patriots seem afraid to announce anything with the league’s selective enforcement of the rules like when the Chiefs randomly got screwed on the Malclin deal and Dolphins signing Suh amongst others got off Scott free.

 

[BadMoFo]

Getting?

 

[RobertWeathers]

Patriots seem afraid to announce anything with the league’s selective enforcement of the rules like when the Chiefs randomly got screwed on the Malclin deal and Dolphins signing Suh amongst others got off Scott free.

No they just don't overspend. They avoid Black Friday. They shop on 12/23

 

[Bill Lee]

Why even have a tampering window anymore? They should just start Free Agency all at once so it’s more like it used to be.

It’s also seeming like taking visits isn’t something that’s very necessary for many players anymore. Hopefully they change this setup in future offseasons.

Yet we just saw it work as designed:

Pro Bowl linebacker Anthony Barr spurns Jets in free agency, decides to re-sign with Vikings

Barr got himself an offer from da Jete to determine his market value then MIN got a chance to sweeten the offer without Barr being sucked into the deep green slime swamps of NJ.

I'm sure MIN wishes he was cheaper, but at least they got a chance to sign him before he committed to da Jete and before they committed to some other free agent and didn't have the cap space to match da Jete's offer.

 

[XLIX]

Why even have a tampering window anymore? They should just start Free Agency all at once so it’s more like it used to be.

It’s also seeming like taking visits isn’t something that’s very necessary for many players anymore. Hopefully they change this setup in future offseasons.

They have the “tampering window” because teams are going to tamper anyway. No matter what date you set as the first date of the new league year, the tampering will already be well underway. At least this way, it can be more open.

 

[Joey007]

Patriots seem afraid to announce anything with the league’s selective enforcement of the rules like when the Chiefs randomly got screwed on the Malclin deal and Dolphins signing Suh amongst others got off Scott free.

Seems like we didn’t care two years ago when we signed Gilmore.

 

[Tb12goesinya]

If the bloodsucking "reporters" would just wait till players can officially sign before reporting the deal, then it would be better.

 

[Froob]

Seems like we didn’t care two years ago when we signed Gilmore.

Wasn’t that the start of the real free agency?

Edit: just looked it up, was the start of official free agency.

 

[Ivan]

I have no problem with it, it’s just the start of free agency a couple of days before the league calendar officially turns over. It’s semantics.

 

[Bill Lee]

Actually what is grinding my gears is that the entire media seems to have gone to describing "guarantees" that aren't "guarantees" since they only become "guarantees" after other conditions get met.

What happened to "guaranteed at signing"????

That's the verbiage they used last year, but it makes the agents look bad, so they seemed to have dropped it.

Now, we're stuck talking about non-guaranteed guarantees, sigh.

If the bloodsucking "reporters" would just wait till players can officially sign before reporting the deal, then it would be better.

Welcome to the Internet Era.

Everyone can tweet to everyone else instantly, no need to wait for the afternoon edition.

The only thing the "reporters" have is the ability to get a "scoop" on all the other clods in the media scrum.

That's how they make themselves look like they are earning their salaries.

In turn, the agents trade "scoops" for favorable treatment of themselves and their clients.

NFL sanctions all this, because they own "NFL Network" and so they get a piece of the action.

 

[patfanken]

Do you REALLY think that the Niners didn't severely tamper with the Pats Trent Brown. How else can you explain how they had a multi page, and I'm sure complex contract for SIXTY-SIX million dollars ready FIVE minutes after the "legal tampering" period began.

Of COURSE (I'm getting a little bit pissed here) they tampered with Brown well before it was legal. Of COURSE nothing is going to happen to them given the very selective nature of the NFL's discipline policies.

If any team had any respect for the league's rules (except when they pertain to the Patriots) the Niner's could have waited about 12 hours if only to maintain the semblance of abiding by the rules. Nothing would have changed, its not like they "stole" Brown from us. But because the league doesn't enforce SOME of their rules on a regular basis, SOME teams feel free to flaunt the rules to their own advantage.

 

[Joey007]

Do you REALLY think that the Niners didn't severely tamper with the Pats Trent Brown. How else can you explain how they had a multi page contract for SIXTY-SIX million dollars ready FIVE minutes after the "legal tampering" period began.

Of COURSE (I'm getting a little bit pissed here) they tampered with Brown well before it was legal. Of COURSE nothing is going to happen to them given the very selective nature of the NFL's discipline policies.

If any team had any respect for the league's rules (except when they pertain to the Patriots) the Niner's could have waited about 12 hours if only to maintain the semblance of abiding by the rules. Nothing would have changed, its not like they "stole" Brown from us. But because the league doesn't enforce SOME of their rules on a regular basis, SOME teams feel free to flaunt the rules to their own advantage.

Raiders.. but I see the point

 

[RobertWeathers]

Why even have a tampering window anymore? They should just start Free Agency all at once so it’s more like it used to be.

It’s also seeming like taking visits isn’t something that’s very necessary for many players anymore. Hopefully they change this setup in future offseasons.

Yea I'm kinda confused why there is one too.

 

[Bill Lee]

Do you REALLY think that the Niners didn't severely tamper with the Pats Trent Brown. How else can you explain how they had a multi page, and I'm sure complex contract for SIXTY-SIX million dollars ready FIVE minutes after the "legal tampering" period began.

Of COURSE (I'm getting a little bit pissed here) they tampered with Brown well before it was legal. Of COURSE nothing is going to happen to them given the very selective nature of the NFL's discipline policies.

If any team had any respect for the league's rules (except when they pertain to the Patriots) the Niner's could have waited about 12 hours if only to maintain the semblance of abiding by the rules. Nothing would have changed, its not like they "stole" Brown from us. But because the league doesn't enforce SOME of their rules on a regular basis, SOME teams feel free to flaunt the rules to their own advantage.

Yea I'm kinda confused why there is one too.

Because NE can now chose to offer Brown $66,000,001 and see if he takes it.

Or in honor of Gronk, NE could offer $69,696,696.

Without the tampering period he'd already be a Raider.

With it, a counter offer could be made, just like happened with Barr.

That, and it stretches out this FA thing over more days.

Besides, the illegal tampering was happening before and the League could not stop it.

It's next to impossible to tell people what they can and cannot talk about.

Thus we have the illegal tampering period.

Now, about those non-guaranteed guarantees...

And get off my lawn!

 

[GodBrady]

I have no problem with it, it’s just the start of free agency a couple of days before the league calendar officially turns over. It’s semantics.

I have to agree. What difference does it make? It's not like any team is at an unfair advantage or something with the way things are. I agree that it's basically purely semantics.

 

[fxmallon]

Yet we just saw it work as designed:

Pro Bowl linebacker Anthony Barr spurns Jets in free agency, decides to re-sign with Vikings

Barr got himself an offer from da Jete to determine his market value then MIN got a chance to sweeten the offer without Barr being sucked into the deep green slime swamps of NJ.

I'm sure MIN wishes he was cheaper, but at least they got a chance to sign him before he committed to da Jete and before they committed to some other free agent and didn't have the cap space to match da Jete's offer.

Bravo to Carr for choosing a deal worth 2 million less per year. But am not sure about the guaranteed money. (He does get incentives with Minny, but that's harder than the outright cash)

 

[patfanken]

Because NE can now chose to offer Brown $66,000,001 and see if he takes it.

Or in honor of Gronk, NE could offer $69,696,696.

Without the tampering period he'd already be a Raider.

With it, a counter offer could be made, just like happened with Barr.

That, and it stretches out this FA thing over more days.

Besides, the illegal tampering was happening before and the League could not stop it.

It's next to impossible to tell people what they can and cannot talk about.

Thus we have the illegal tampering period.

Now, about those non-guaranteed guarantees...

And get off my lawn!

I have no problem with the Raiders offering Brown the contract. But the rule states that no team can contact the player of agent UNTIL midnight. CLEARLY the Raiders were in contact WELL before that time because you don't negotiate a contract with all the details that goes into something that expensive in five minutes.

BTW- I'm not sure I see your point. Every deal that was announced the last few days were subject to a player or team backing out (see the Jets). Every team that announced a deal knew in advance they were taking a chance that it could fall apart (see the Jets ) Whether they announced it at 5 past midnight or at 6pm, any team can still go to Trent and say, "hey I got a better offer", and Brown can take it.

My point was that the Raiders, (among some of the other teams that had early signings) flaunted the rules of the league by those early signings. If they held off as little as 12 hours just for form sake, to at least pretend that they abided by the rules, nothing would have change. In other words they got ZERO advantage in announcing the deal that quickly EXCEPT to give the finger to the Park Ave clowns and show the hypocrisy of their rules enforcement