Legal Tampering!!!

The latest newsletter from KCSN Sports Data Scientist, Joseph Hefner

On Monday, the NFL Legal Tampering period opened. This is the period of the NFL year when teams are first allowed to contact players who are going to be free agents on Wednesday. It is a period where teams can gauge interest and feel out contract values for players they are interested in bringing on to their team.

Of course, it is in actuality the start of free agency. Every year there are several multi-year deals completed within an hour of the Legal Tampering period opening. Perhaps those teams and players are just really on the ball and know exactly what they want. Or perhaps teams have already made contact with players and agents, and have hammered out contracts prior to the start of the legal tampering period, and those deals just do not get announced until it begins.

Yes, that would be tampering, and not during the LEGAL tampering period. Yes, teams do it anyway. It is blatantly obvious. Every few years, the NFL slaps a team down for it to remind teams this is a no-no (remember Maclin, anyone??), and every year teams ignore it anyway. It’s tradition, at this point.