Did the Atlanta Falcons cross the tampering line with Kirk Cousins? | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC

Mike Florio and Chris Simms evaluate if the NFL will take action after Kirk Cousins admitted to direct communication with the Falcons during the negotiating period. #NBCSports #ProFootballTalk #atlantafalcons
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Did the Atlanta Falcons cross the tampering line with Kirk Cousins? | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC
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And and this is becoming almost comical when you consider the extent to which the Falcons tampered with Kirk Cousins and I say that knowing the tampering is rampant in the National Football League it’s the dirty little secret that isn’t a secret they started the legal tampering period

Because the tampering was so rampid they had to do something because it was just a joke people were making a mockery of it when everyone gets to Indianapolis and we’ve talked about this a few times the past couple of weeks for The Scouting combat you have agents meeting

With teams and it’s rampant impending free agents know what’s out there they know what’s behind door number two door number three sometimes it helps a team I believe it helped the Buccaneers get Mike Evans back because his agents were able to see what else wasn’t out there

For him now it also helps that Mike evans’s wife said we’re not leaving Tampa that could be a powerful Factor as well but I say all that because the Falcons and this is this is the I I thought of you this morning I was trying to think of a good example remember when

We were in Indianapolis and you’re walking around and smell weed and we’re like wait a minute weed’s not legal here well it’s one thing to walk around and smell the weed and not know where it’s coming from if somebody’s running down the street saying I got the weed I got

The weed you’re going to get busted and the Falcons are running around saying I got the weed I got the weed on this T I mean it is so blatant it is so laughable it is so obvious what they did in tampering with Kirk Cousins and people I

Talk to around the league saying oh God I mean it’s been going on for weeks if not months everybody knows about it the Falcons tampered with Kirk Cousins and they’re being Wreckless about it Chris and I think they’re going to end up in a problem when you think of the few

Occasions when the NFL has done something about it it’s been when it is so blatant that the NFL looks like a clown for not doing something about it I’ll be interested to see where it goes it it is blatant I I would agree with you there it’s a definitely a little

More inyour face than even the normal what we’re talking about you’re you’re you’re exactly right now you know like you said tampering is going on everywhere right I think it’s pretty egregious for the most part I don’t think most of the I don’t think teams really care right there’s kind of these

Unwritten rules of what you’re maybe should tamper with and not right I don’t think that a lot of coaches and GMS care about that right I don’t think the league really cares unless it’s something where it’s like wait this is you really tried to screw over this organization like Shawn pton and Tom

Brady with the Miami Dolphins and under the radar trying to screw over the New Orleans Saints and all that type of stuff right that’s where the league gets involved here this is one where I feel like they look at it and go well and I think everybody he’s a he’s going to be

A free agent right this wasn’t like he was property of the team still and it kind of gets you know just say all right this is the way it is but yeah this one is pretty blatant it’s to the point of yeah I you know again I don’t think

Minnesota’s going to cry wolf here or anything like that but but some of the things he said in that pressure yesterday I mean he couldn’t have made it more obvious that he’s been having these conversations for three or four weeks at least with the Atlanta Falcons and people

There here’s where I’ll disagree with you because I believe the Vikings are waking up to the extent of the tampering and it might you think it cross the line okay think it cred the line teritory now you’re making us look what are weed to do about this it’s the equivalent of

Spider telling Tommy to go f himself and Tommy doesn’t do anything about it and dairo is standing there saying you just going to let him get away with that what’s the world coming to I feel like the Vikings are getting backed in that corner where they got to shoot spider

Now where spider is forcing the Vikings to shoot him by being so blatant about it maybe a little Maybe a little but it it’s also too like they better be careful cuz then it’s be like well what were you going to offer them are you going to offer them that well that’s a

Joke forget it right I don’t know and some ways too you look at it and go this expedited an obvious process as well to where what did Minnesota still want him to be talking about it now and then we’ll wait another two weeks before the deal gets done and then you don’t oh

Crap the free agency now we didn’t even get a chance to get a quarterback we wanted or whatever so I I don’t know and I’m Pro player Mike so I’m a little bit of like the league colludes all the time I know you’re not I’m not trying to go

Against you so I’m for that as far as the player getting a feel for how can I gauge in getting my most money there and that that’s where I guess I don’t get as mad about it right one of the things that drives me crazy about the NFL is they have all

These rules and they enforce them selectively not consistently and this goes back to when I practiced law especially when you handle cases involving employees whose rights have been violated by their employers one the best ways you can prove something that no one will ever admit they’ll never admit they fired someone because of

Their race their gender their religion their age whatever the proof comes from the inconsistent way that the rules are applied they got a stack of rules that they find one that this person they don’t want around anymore violated and then they enforce it so it’s always dangerous to have rules you don’t

Consistently apply and that’s where the NFL is kind of find finding a balance as it relates to tampering okay just let’s not be blatant about it let’s not force us to do something about it because otherwise we look like a joke we look like we don’t know what we’re doing

That’s where this has crossed the line I believe and here’s the quick background yeah as it relates to the bright Line Silver Bullet tampering 2015 when Jeremy Macklin then with the Eagles a former first round pick of Andy Reid when he was in Philadelphia right when he was

Due to become a free agent Andy Reed spoke to Jeremy Macklin directly during that 52-hour negot negotiating window which is a clear bright line violation because all that can happen during the legal tampering period the negotiating window whatever term you want to apply all that can happen is negotiations with

The agent unless the player isn’t represented then it can be negotiations with the player that’s it no other Communications are allowed of any kind with the organization and the player now it gets a little fuzzier when you’re talking about player-to-player Communications we might talk about that later but just as

It relates to people who are part of the team coaches trainers Executives Etc you’re not allowed to talk to the guy until the the clock strikes four o’clock Eastern on the first day of the league year it is a bright line it is clear it

Is obvious and if you’re going to do it you better not be dumb about it and tell the world you’ve done it with that we give you Kirk Cousins admitting to the world that apparently that’s exactly what happened during the 52-hour window when they were only allowed to be

Negotiating directly with his agent here’s cousins from yesterday about his pre start of the league year Communications with Falcons Representatives there’s great people here and it’s not just the football team I mean I’m looking at the support staff meeting calling uh yesterday calling the our our head athletic trainer talking to

Our head of of PR I’m thinking we got good people here I kept getting off a call whether it was with Jake Matthews whether it was with the team chaplain uh whether it was with you know Ryan Pace whether it was with uh you know McGary whoever Drake London

I said Julie these guys are sharp I mean I’ve been I’ve been in locker rooms I I’ve seen what what it can look like I said these guys are sharp well spoken they want to win they’re humble uh I mean this this could be fun okay I’m going to work backward on

This first of all Ryan Pace the former Bears general manager the director of player Personnel in Atlanta and I give credit to Pete dtis for catching it I missed it yesterday when I was watching the press conference the light bulb didn’t go off for me and we don’t know

When he spoke to Ryan Pace but driving in a car and and and he was meeting with the media just three hours after the moment where he could have talked to Ryan Pace or anyone else so that one’s at least a so then you work back to him saying

That yesterday I.E Tuesday I.E during the 52-hour window he talked to the Head athletic trainer and if you noticed Chris he stopped himself he said meeting I calling calling not meeting strike that from the record not meeting the head athletic trainer calling the head athletic trainer I mean look and

This is on the Falcons for not telling him Kirk here’s what you can and can’t say like they they didn’t even bother to explain to him that this stuff that they’re doing blatantly violates the rules so that’s the first time in all the years I’ve done this and in the 10

Years or so that they’ve had this legal negotiating window this is the first time that a guy has stood up there at the podium and basically admitted to the world that they they didn’t just put a toe over the line they did a cannonball into the shallow end of the pool no I

You know I think by yeah it’s Cannonball you know I think Kurt Cousins reached out to Atlanta very early in the process right I do where yeah he he realized wait there’s a needed quarterback there I’m I’m going to get my agent to get my name in the mix there

And get them thinking about it early on and then it matched up with Raheem Morris being there and the rest of that right and I just think it took a life of its own and it probably got more aggressive and aggressive as it went on I mean again even thinking about we we

Alluded to Raheem Morris at the combine talking about a player that fits right the the Atlanta and wants to be in the city right we were going like I thought maybe even met me meant Justin Fields right we knew it was either Kirk Cousins or Justin Fields but you know with those

Type of comments too it makes you feel like yeah they knew what was coming what was going to happen but but the thing to me Mike here is like you brought up Jeremy Macklin that’s really the last time I’ve heard the NFL enforce the rule or really worry about it like I can’t

Think of another time off the top of my head where stuff like the Jeremy Macklin things got you know enforced again on a team or or a team was was penalized for for that kind of antics you know I feel like after that they kind of pushed the

Bar up and like ah we’re going to let that go you got to be even you know more egregious and more under the radar you know trying to plan crazy stuff behind our back for us to Care and I feel like ever since then they’ve kind of just

Gone ah we don’t really care uh and as long as teams don’t cry wolf too much here right and and I think at the time what happened and I remember was explained to me that part of the motivation for hitting the Chiefs and making an example of an experienced and respected

Coach like Andy Reid it was a message to the other coaches out there as to what is expected during this negotiating window and the negotiating window was still new and it was kind of clunky at first I remember they had this dumb rule like you could negotiate but you can’t

Come to an agreement well what if we accidentally come to an agreement what if we realize while negotiating oh oh we’ve made agreement sorry Nelson so I I you know that they’ve evolved but still it’s a bright line you can’t have Direct Communications with the player

During that 52-hour window and it might just be they haven’t had a situation like this fall into their laps since then and there’s never been to my recollection a situation like this where the player stands up and says it it reminds me of when the NFL had to hit

The Jets for the Brett Favre partially torn biceps tendon a year later because when he got to Minnesota and they started asking him about why the team fell apart down the stretch when they at one point were the number one seed after they beat your Tennessee Titans I

Believe on a Thursday night they’re the number one seed in 2008 what happened wellow I had I had this I can’t do a Brett Favre but I had this I had this arm injury well what what arm injury what where’s where where it would never

Said you had an arm injury and he kept talking about it and he kept talking about it he kept talking about somebody from the league explained to me he eventually talked about it so much we couldn’t ignore it we had to do something about it I feel like that’s

Where we are with this blatant tampering blatant conversations with multiple people from the organization with Kirk Cousins that they didn’t have to do that’s what makes it so weird they didn’t have to do it he was going there anyway and it just shows that Chris this is the atmosphere that emerges when you

Never enforce the rule you eventually get to the point where it is so rampant that you got to do something and and I feel like that’s where we are here what’s the NFL going to do well let me just get of the rule is it morefor is it

More egregious than Brady and Tampa and grank and Tampa who like literally had playbooks and were showing up the coach’s uh house to go practice when you weren’t supposed to be doing that and getting playbooks they came out and said it right well they kind of did I mean we

Knew it remember what grank said he was joking he didn’t say yeah they gave me the Playbook early while I was still under contract with the Patriots that’s what Kirk said yesterday that’s the difference and why Byron left which wandering around in somebody’s house when he’s looking for Tom Brady when

They weren’t supposed to be working out together I again in other cases the players involved the coaches involved don’t hand The Smoking Gun to the League what what Kirk did yesterday was he said hey look at this gun it’s smoking hey everybody look at this look look that’s the difference and I’m not

And and I’m not saying it’s right or it’s wrong and it’s always wrong if it violates the rules the difference here is the stunning degree of recklessness with which the Falcons are saying hey look we got a Smoking Gun it’s right here that’s what’s different about it

Yeah I I I you know listen it was very obvious watching that presser yesterday so there there’s no doubt about that but again I got I don’t know if the NFL really cares in these instances and I think it’s going to take minutes OTA to complain to the league a little bit to

Get them to start going wait or give them a slap on the wrist or penalty or whatever else but it’s going to take that I think for anything to happen ultimately because I just I think it’s gotten extremely loose with this type of stuff and I don’t think the NFL you know

Has really cared for quite some time with with some of this illegal tampering and and how far it goes I agree yep I agree and the fact that everybody’s gotten loose and everybody’s gotten careless and every has gotten Reckless whenever the NFL decides to wake up the investigative machinery and look into it

It should be easy to find because the evidence is going to be there the digital Footprints will be there the call log and I’m reminded now of the whole Tom Brady destroying his phone the the call logs texts um and and back to the point where he said meeting before

Calling the head athletic trainer meeting and then changing it to calling two very different human interactions I was talking to a GM from another team about this last night and went over this whole thing well he starts to say meeting and then he says calling did you

Catch that this person said if he met with the head of athletic trainer during the 52-hour negotiating window they should lose a first round pick for that that’s how blatant it is that’s how over the line it is if he actually was in the team facility or elsewhere meeting with

Team officials during that 52-hour window that is something that the league does need to care about so we’ll see we’ll find out I Mike Florio thanks for watching PFT on YouTube hit subscribe for the latest news and Analysis from pro football talk