The New England Patriots have filed formal charges against the New York Jets for tampering, due to Jets’ owner’s comments about Darrelle Revis.
The AFC East always manages to keep things interesting, if not always competitive from a play standpoint. The drama has increased on Sunday as Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the Patriots have filed an official tampering charge against the Jets for comments made by Jets owner Woody Johnson back in December regarding current Patriots cornerback Darrelle Revis.
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“Darrelle is a great player, and if I thought I could have gotten Darrelle for [what the Patriots paid], I probably would’ve taken him,” Johnson said, via the Boston Herald. “And it was our best judgment to do what we did. Darrelle is a great player. I’d love for Darrelle to come back.”
That’s what Johnson said in December during the press conference announcing the firings of coach Rex Ryan and GM John Idzik.
"Via Pro Football Talk, from the NFL‘s anti-tampering policy: “Any public or private statement of interest, qualified or unqualified, in another club’s player to that player’s agent or representative, or to a member of the news media, is a violation of this Anti-Tampering Policy. (Example of a prohibited comment: ‘He’s an excellent player, and we’d very much like to have him if he were available, but another club holds his rights.’)”"
As you can see, that’s a pretty clear violation of the tampering rule. Revis is the property of the Patriots and signed for a two year deal after being cut by Tampa Bay. However, he counts hard against the cap next year and assuming the Patriots try to renegotiate, Revis would have leverage based on Johnson’s comments.
Originally it was reported by Pro Football Talk that the Patriots expected the league to take action, but that was back in December and now the Patriots are filing official charges. It’s possible that the Patriots were told by the NFL to file charges if they had a problem with Johnson’s comments. That’s somewhat ironic considering the Patriots were on the other end of the tampering aisle in 2007 when the Raiders accused New England of tampering with Randy Moss.
If the NFL upholds the Patriots’ charges, the Jets face sanctions such as fines or loss of draft picks. One scenario is that the violator switches picks with the victim. In the Patriots/Jets case, that’s very favorable to the Patriots considering where the Jets will be picking this year.
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