Do you recall that former Chicago Bears GM Ryan Pace found himself in the middle of the Atlanta Falcons free agency tampering case? Well, finally, punishment is being handed out to the Falcons for their wrongdoings in tampering with free agents earlier this offseason.
However, the penalty seems light to me:
The NFL is docking the #Falcons a 2025 fifth-round pick for violating the league’s anti-tampering policy with Kirk Cousins, Darnell Mooney and Charlie Woerner. The team is also being fined $250,000 and GM Terry Fontenot is being fined $50,000.
The violations are considered… pic.twitter.com/fa7cHnHXWu— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) June 13, 2024
This is going to stick in my craw for a bit. The NFL was able to prove that the Falcons violated the league’s anti-tampering policy with quarterback Kirk Cousins, wide receiver Darnell Mooney, and tight end Charlie Woerner. However, the punishment for getting caught red-handed comes off as soft. After all, you’d think that tampering with three players and getting caught would result in a more harsh penalty. Instead, the Falcons are losing a 2025 fifth-round pick and will take a $250,000 fine. Meanwhile, General Manager Terry Fontenot gets hit with a $50,000 fine. I don’t get it. Actions used to have consequences. This is nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Sheesh.
Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles — who were also facing tampering charges stemming from their offseason pursuit of former New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley —are off the hook completely:
NFL informed the Eagles that its investigation did not discover sufficient evidence to support a finding that the Anti-Tampering Policy was violated in signing Saquon Barkley.— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 13, 2024
No harm, no foul seems to be the story here. And I’m OK with that because there are occasions when investigations turn up nothing. That is the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. But the Falcons penalty (or lack of it) is going to bug me for a minute.
Falcons punishment in tampering case could open up a can of worms down the road
Perhaps my beef with the punishment handed down to the Falcons is rooted in my personal expectation that it was going to be more harsh. Remember, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported there was a belief that discipline in this case could be “more severe” for the Falcons than they were for other recent cases that snagged the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs in recent years. Then again, it probably should have been stiffer than what was given out in the first place.
Stop and think about it for a moment. Atlanta was caught tampering in free agency with another team’s starting quarterback. You’d think the league would try to make an example of the Falcons and use it as a warning shot to other teams who could pursue a quarterback in future free agency classes. They didn’t. And it could lead to a slippery slope.
Let’s face it. A cash fine of a few hundred thousand dollars to a billion-dollar entity and the loss of a Day 3 pick will not steer future NFL execs from tampering. Heck, it might push some enterprising front office head honcho to push the envelope even further. Just wait until next offseason when Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott hits free agency. Prescott’s future in Dallas is unclear. And if he makes it to the free agent market like Kirk Cousins did, the potential tampering here could be generational. So stay tuned for that.
In the end, the biggest surprise to me is that former Bears executive Ryan Pace gets off scot-free here:
This is NFL-propagated BS. Cousins admitted to speaking directly to the head athletic trainer and to director of player personnel Ryan Pace during the negotiating window. https://t.co/YObiZVSNWY— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) June 13, 2024
EL OH EL. I’ll never forget how Ryan Pace and Darnell Mooney were central figures in the NFL’s tampering case headlined by Kirk Cousins. That whole thing is a MadLibs sentence that even I couldn’t cook up on my most galaxy-brained day.
I hope the tampering stuff doesn’t get too out of hand because it could make free agency go bonkers in ways that might not be fun to follow. But maybe that is one reason the NFL didn’t go as hard as it could have on the Falcons (or even the Eagles). NFL free agency is an industry on its own. It is as much of a revenue-generator (think of all the jerseys and merch that gets sold when a player switches teams) as it is a content-generator for folks like me. The NFL stifling it would probably be bad business. But there probably should be some limitations somewhere before things go the way of the Wild West.
written by
Luis C. Medina
Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.
