Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank said he did not think his team broke NFL tampering rules in the process of landing their new quarterback, Kirk Cousins.
ESPN reported Monday that Blank said in a league meeting in Orlando, Florida that the team’s pursuit of Cousins was fair and above board, and he believes the NFL’s investigation will prove it.
“The tampering deal, we obviously don’t believe we tampered, and we shared all the information with the league,” Blank was quoted as saying by ESPN. “And they’ll review the process and the facts and they are in the middle of doing that, and whatever the result is, we’ll deal with it.”
The controversy centers over the March 13th press conference at Falcons headquarters that introduced Cousins to Atlanta as the new Falcons quarterback. He indicated that he had spoken with the team’s head trainer and head of public relations before 4 PM which starts the league’s new year. Teams can speak with agents before that time, but not directly to players unless the player doesn’t have an agent or is representing himself. The NFL launched its investigation the next day.
Some observers point out that the Falcons could get hit with fines and a loss of draft picks if they find that the team did violate tampering rules.
