What is the ‘legal tampering’ period in NFL?

Super Bowl LVIII is over, so that’s NFL finished until next year, right? Wrong. It never fully stops, and we’ve only got a few weeks until things begin to kick-off again, with the NFL Combine coming before the NFL 2024 Draft. But there’s even more: between the two we’ve got the Free Agency Period. Have you written all this down?

As for the Free Agency, this year promises to be one of the most dramatic we’ve possibly ever seen, with plenty of big names set to make team switches ahead of the regular season. Ahead of the opening of the market, teams will have what’s known as the ‘legal tampering period’, which is exactly what we’re going to look at.

But first, just a quick explainer: the NFL Free Agency market is the period ahead of the season when players and managers whose contracts expire can sign for any club that wants them.

What is legal tampering in NFL?

And so, onto the topic of the conversation. Legal tampering is a permitted period of negotiations between teams and free agents ahead of the opening of the Free Agency period. The legal tampering period normally lasts just over a couple of days, around 52 hours, before the Free Agency curtain is raised.

Keep in mind that although agreements may be made in principle, no official announcement can be made until the period ends and free agency begins, in this case Wednesday, March 11th.

Most of the time tampering happens when either a player or coach are near the end of their contract. Being the first in line to speak to the league’s top talent is a crucial step in negotiations, meaning competition is fierce and has even, on some occasions, led to naughty sea creatures doing naughty things.

What happens if a team breaks the legal tampering rules?

Well, we saw a clear example of exactly what happens when it was revealed that, quite shockingly, the Miami Dolphins had got their tail fins in a tangle and were speaking to both Tom Brady and Sean Payton outside of the permitted period.

Their punishment was not only a hefty $1.5 million fine, but also a vital 2023 draft pick, which was taken away from them like a salmon swiped from a river by a Brown Bear. Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL, said this is a case unlike any other seen in the league, “The investigators found tampering violations of unprecedented scope and severity,” said Goodell in a statement.

“I know of no prior instance of a team violating the prohibition on tampering with both a head coach and star player”, he continued, “to the potential detriment of multiple other clubs, over a period of several years. Similarly, I know of no prior instance in which ownership was so directly involved in the violations.” Long story short, don’t do it. Naughty Dolphins.