By Matt Stuart | Published | No Comments
The NFL league office states that it is investigating allegations that the Philadelphia Eagles and the Atlanta Falcons tampered with free agents Saquon Barker (Eagles) and Kirk Cousins (Falcons) during the NFL’s two day legal tampering window on the Monday and Tuesday that lead up to the official start of NFL free agency on Wednesday March 13th.
Teams are allowed to talk to a players current agent during the two day “legal tampering” window, before the official start of free agency. However, teams are not allowed to to speak directly to a player until free agency begins on Wednesday March 13th.
In the case of the Eagles, current Penn State head coach James Franklin told reporters that Philadelphia general manager Howie Roseman is alleged to have spoken to Barkley about his connection to his former college program the Penn State Nittany Lions and that this conversation happened before Wednesday.
Barkley has stated that Franklin “misinterpreted” the situation.
“The truth was the sales pitch of how many Penn State fans are Philadelphia Eagles fans, that was through my agent,” Barkley stated. “My agent told me that.”
In regards to the Atlanta Falcons it is not alleged that any member of Falcons organization spoke directly to Cousins before Wednesday. However, according to ESPN, it’s possible that a quote by Cousins during his press conference on Wednesday might lead some to believe that he had contact with other members of the Falcons organization.
Cousins stated during his press conference, “There’s great people here. And it’s not just the football team. I mean, I’m looking at the support staff. … Calling our head athletic trainer, talking to our head of PR I’m thinking, ‘We got good people here.’ And that’s exciting to be a part of.”
It’s not clear when Cousins may have made those calls. If he made them on Wednesday morning, for example, those calls would be perfectly fine. There is also some ambiguity as to whether the Falcons would have actually violated the tampering policy if another player initiated the contact with what is known by the NFL as “support staff on an NFL team”.
If Cousins made the phone calls himself and spoke to a trainer this past Sunday, for example, it’s not exactly clear if that would actually constitute tampering under the NFL’s current policy. However, if the Falcons support staff initiated the calls, that would most certainly constitute tampering.
In either case, both the Eagles and the Falcons could be looking at the loss of draft picks, in addition to a fine, if the tampering allegations are substantiated.
