Eagles deny impermissible contact with free-agency signee Saquon Barkley
Forget Spring football. Who needs it? The NFL might as well be reality television anyway. The drama... The subplots... It's almost as if the behind-the-scenes mess is as noteworthy as the games themselves. Have you heard? The Philadelphia Eagles are again under the microscope.
This time, there's a rumor floating around that there may have been impermissible contact with Saquon Barkley during the negotiating window that preceded the official beginning of free agency.
Here's an update on the Eagles; reported violation of NFL rules involving their negotiations with Saquon Barkley.
Barkley has officially agreed to terms on a three-year, $37.75 million contract that includes $26 million fully guaranteed at signing, but there are questions about whether there was some foul play. According to ESPN's Tim McManus, Saquon's former head coach at Penn State, James Franklin, suggested Eagles Vice President/General Manager Howie Roseman spoke to the star running back directly, which, by NFL rules is unallowable.
Says Franklin at a Penn State spring football press conference: "For him now to come back and be able to play within the state, in Philadelphia, he said that was one of the first things that Howie said to him on the phone as part of his sales pitch to him was not only the Philadelphia Eagles and that but obviously the connection with Penn State and the fan base as well."
NFL teams are disallowed to speak with players directly unless they represent themselves. At the time of this story's release, there has been no word from the NFL about whether or not the league has begun an investigation. Meanwhile, the Eagles deny wrongdoing.
Per McManus' report, sources have informed him that "An Eagles spokesperson said he was unaware of any communication from the league to the team on the subject as of Wednesday evening" and the New York Giants, Barkley's former team, have not reached out to the league about the matter. We'll see if anything comes of this.
Oh... And, by the way, we're just kidding when we say 'Forget spring football'. We love this game very much. As soon as things get going, we'll certainly be locked in to see what a UFL minus the again-defunct Philadelphia Stars will look like.