So a while ago some news broke about the Chiefs apparently tampering with Jeremy Maclin around the time they tried to sign him. I honestly missed this story somehow. But this actually cost the team a couple of draft picks for this upcoming draft so I feel like it probably deserves a mention for the archives, so that one day I can go back through my stuff and go “oh yeah, that was a thing that happened”. That’s all I really want.

I looked it up and basically what the Chiefs did was initiate illegal contact (lol) on Maclin before the free agency period started. I guess attempting to court him before they were “technically” allowed to. They contacted Maclin directly, instead of through his agent. This is cheating? This is worth two draft picks? Give me a break. Teams have little to no regard for the free agency time period rules. How do you think players get signed so fast? We get stories of a big name free agent “in the area” of a team office days before free agency starts, then the day free agency officially begins, they get signed within hours. Come on. Teams are breaking the rules. So they called Maclin instead of his agent. How is that such a big goddamn deal? If you are going to restrict one, restrict the other. Are there rules about players on the prospective team texting the free agent? What if Alex Smith texted Jeremy Maclin a couple days early, saying “Bro, you should come here, We can be relevant”. Is that illegal? What if Andy Reid texted Maclin like “Bro, remember when we used to work together? Lets go eat dinner and reminisce” is that Illegal? A former coach and player hanging out and talking about old times, but one happens to be a free agent? There is a ton of undefined gray area here and frankly this isn’t worth it. Teams should be allowed to call whoever they damn well please. As long as they aren’t purposefully trying to sabotage another team and are just trying to woo a player, it should be legal. I see nothing wrong with talk. It should be the current team’s responsibility to court their own free agents if they want to keep them.

A fine, whatever. Losing two draft picks for this is a joke.