The backlash hurts Georgia.
After making one of the big moves of the offseason by signing Kirk Cousins for 4 seasons and a juicy contract that could go up to $180 million, doubts quickly hovered over the Falcons. With his tongue a little too hanging, the veteran Quarterback had in fact let slip during his presentation that he had had the opportunity to speak with the coach of his new team outside the authorized period, to which the NFL immediately reacted by opening an investigation. Three months later, the results of the latter came via a press release:
The NFL today notified the Atlanta Falcons of disciplinary action imposed for violating the Anti-Illegal Talking Policy due to inappropriate contact with free agents Kirk Cousins, Darnell Mooney and Charlie Woerner during the two-day negotiating period prior to the official start of the 2024 season. Atlanta will have to forfeit its fifth-round pick in the 2025 Draft and pay a fine of $250,000, while general manager Terry Fontenot was fined $50,000. Although the policy allows clubs to negotiate all aspects of an NFL player contract with a prospective free agent's licensed agent without restriction during the two-day negotiation period, any direct contact between the player and an employee or a club representative is prohibited. This includes discussing travel arrangements or other logistical matters, which the club acknowledges having done in relation to these three players.
Tampering, a practice banned in the NFL
Tampering consists of making direct contact with a player still under contract with another franchise, outside the period authorized for negotiating with free agents. It is in fact strictly prohibited, before the opening of this negotiation window, to make direct contact with a player (while nevertheless having the possibility of discussing with the latter's agent). Some franchises are sometimes tempted to transgress these rules in order to convince a player before their competitors, with the risk of being caught by the patrol.
For the Falcons, it's a bit special, since the negotiation period was open, but the franchise only had the right to speak to the agent, not the player.
Although sanctioned, the Falcons can consider themselves lucky to only lose a 5th round choice to the extent that the Dolphins had recently been much more severely penalized for acts of the same type (a first round of Draft) or that the Chiefs lost a third-round pick for talking to Jeremy Maclin in 2016. The Falcons' penalty is therefore surprisingly light.
Under investigation for the same facts, the Eagles are doing even better since the NFL indicated that its investigation had not uncovered sufficient evidence of violations regarding Saquon Barkley. The Philadelphians received no sanctions.
