NFL rules for the new legal tampering period

[Mr. Laz]

NFL rules for the new legal tampering period
Print | Comments (0) Posted by Greg A. Bedard March 6, 2013 02:14 PM

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By Greg A. Bedard, Globe Staff

Here are a few of the guidelines that teams must adhere to with the new three-day negotiating period this weekend:

Period starts at midnight on Saturday and ends at 3:59 p.m. on Tuesday. So, it's actually about 8887 hours long (with daylight savings time begins this weekend);

Teams can only contact the agents and enter into negotiations. No contracts can be executed until free agency starts at 4 p.m. on Tuesday;
Teams can't meet with players (other than the player's current club) in any location, and there can be no direct contact between the player and another team;

Players who don't have an agent, such as Ravens safety Ed Reed, can't be contacted by another team;

No visits can be lined up until free agency starts at 4 p.m. Tuesday;
The three-day window only applies to potential unrestricted free agents. It excludes restricted free agents and franchise players.

- See more at: http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/extra_points/2013/03/rules_for_the_n.html#sthash.RyLfho6B.dpuf

[chefsos]

Period starts at midnight on Saturday and ends at 3:59 p.m. on Tuesday. So, it's actually about 8887 hours long (with daylight savings time begins this weekend);

I'm loving that typo.

[The Franchise]

370 days? This is going to be a long offseason.

[Dave Lane]

370 days? This is going to be a long offseason.

Get some FAs lined up for 2014 now. Wonder if they count against this years cap.

[chefsos]

Ah, I see now. In the original article they struck through 88 to edit it to 87, but left both numbers there. I don't know why it couldn't have just been edited, but oh well. Maybe some White-Out would have been useful...

[BlackHelicopters]

The longer the better...........

[OrtonsPiercedTaint]

NFL rules for the new legal tampering period
Posted by Greg A. Bedard March 6, 2013 02:14 PM


Players who don't have an agent, such as Ravens safety Ed Reed, can't be contacted by another team;

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/extra_points/2013/03/rules_for_the_n.html#sthash.RyLfho6B.dpuf

Were agents involved in the latest CBA-

[ShowtimeSBMVP]

Adam Schefter ‏@AdamSchefter

So what happens tonight shouldn't be all that different than what went on in Indianapolis. Lots of talk, no deals allowed.




March 8, 2013With teams allowed to speak to agents of prospective free agents at midnight, NFL sent a memo to all 32 teams reminding them that no agreements are allowed. The league's memo to all teams read, in part: "Clubs are advised that prior to the beginning of the new League Year it is impermissible for a club to enter into an agreement of any kind, express or implied, oral or written, or promises, undertakings, representations, commitments, inducements, assurances of intent or understandings of any kind concerning the terms or conditions of employment offered to, or to be offered to, any prospective Unrestricted Free Agent for inclusion in a Player Contract after the start of the new League Year. Any announcement of an agreement or an agreement in principle by a club or another party, including, but not limited to, a certified agent, player, or media organization may subject the club to a tampering investigation." In other words, free agency will not begin until Tuesday at 4 pm ET, even if talks are allowed tonight.

[The Bad Guy]

What's even the point? What a stupid fucking idea from Goddell if he's not going to allow deals in principle to be agreed to.

[-King-]

Well.... that's dumb.

[Mr_Tomahawk]

Pro Football Weekly ‏@ProFootballWkly
RT @seankjensen: Reading the memo obtained by @JasonLaCanfora, fairly clear that NFL frowns upon an "agreement in principles" before Tuesday

[-King-]

New NFL memo contradicts plain language of revised rules
Posted by Mike Florio on March 9, 2013, 12:16 AM EST


If it wasn’t so pathetic, it would be funny.

After years of looking the other way despite blatant tampering in the days and weeks prior to the official launch of free agency, which often featured the negotiation of multi-million-dollar contracts in a matter of minutes and/or the instantaneous making and execution of travel plans to visit teams, the league has created a three-day window during which negotiations may occur between teams and agents representing free agents.

The “2013 free agency questions and answers” published by the NFL on Thursday plainly state: “Beginning at 12:00 midnight ET on Saturday, March 9 (i.e., after 11:59:59 p.m. ET, on Friday, March 8) and ending at 3:59:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 12, clubs are permitted to contact, and enter into negotiations with, the certified agents of players who will become Unrestricted Free Agents upon the expiration of their 2012 Player Contracts at 4:00 p.m. ET on March 12. However, a contract cannot be executed with a new club until 4:00 p.m. ET on March 12.”

This language does not prohibit the finalization of an agreement in principle, with the formal contract execution coming the moment the close strikes 4:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 12. Thus language implies that everything can be prepared by Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. for the prompt execution of the formal contract.

But even at a time when tampering has been rampant and blatant (as anyone who attended the Scouting Combine and/or stayed at one of the hotels swarming with team employees and player agents knows), the NFL has reportedly warned teams not to strike agreements in principle with agents before 4:00 p.m. ET on March 12.

The memo sent Friday to all teams, a copy of which PFT has obtained reiterates that “no contract can be executed until 4:00 p.m., New York time, on March 12.”

In the next breath, the memo explains that “prior to the beginning of the new League Year it is impermissible for a club to enter into an agreement of any kind, express or implied, oral or written, or promises, undertakings, representations, commitments, inducements, assurances of intent or understandings of any kind concerning the terms or conditions of employment offered to, or to be offered to, any prospective Unrestricted Free Agent for inclusion in a Player Contract after the start of the new League Year.”

So what the hell are the teams and agents supposed to be negotiating?

The limitation in the document dubbed PP-28-13 contradicts the plain language of the rule articulated in PP-26-13. If the original limitation was that no contract may be executed before 4:00 p.m. ET on March 12, the notion that no verbal understandings may be reached by then guts the rule. And turns common sense on its head.

The most amazing aspect of PP-28-13 is the threat of a “tampering investigation.” When it comes to tampering investigations, the league has been impotent for years, pursuing only the most blatant, defiant, and/or idiotic instances of tampering and turning a blind but knowing eye to countless instances of it.

The NFL doesn’t pursue tampering cases in part because everyone does it. So now, out of the blue, the NFL threatens a tampering investigation against any team that reaches a tentative agreement during a period expressly allowing everything short of a signed contract? Really?

It’s a joke, but it all points to something former Chiefs G.M. Scott ***** first mentioned last month on Pro Football Talk: The league is building toward a contrived “signing day,” on which players will announce that which previously was unknown to anyone except the player and his family.

Still, it’s impractical in this context, and we can’t imagine that a sudden wave of huffing and puffing from a league office that has little capacity to blow anything down if the teams are discreet will keep teams from striking informal deals and then getting the word out in order to scare other teams away from the player.

Obviously, we encourage discreet defiance. In part because I just slept three hours so that I could stay up all night and write about the agreements in principle that, prior to Friday’s memo, the new rules clearly allowed.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/09/new-nfl-memo-contradicts-plain-language-of-revised-rules/