Resolution in Eagles' tampering case involving Saquon Barkley could be nearing
Though there hasn't been much to complain about during this Philadelphia Eagles offseason, there was that thing involving Saquon Barkley. You know the one. His former head coach at Penn State, James Franklin, made a second-hand remark, and just like that, most of the football world went bananas.
Franklin's statement, one suggesting Howie Roseman helped sell Saquon on leaving the New York Giants by suggesting there were a ton of Nittany Lions in the Birds' fan base, doesn't sound like much to stress about on the surface. One problem... Based on the timeline, if that conversation did indeed happen, contact made between Howie and Barkley would have been impermissible.
You see there's this little thing about a 52-hour negotiating window that prohibits contact between teams and players, and said window is a strict one. To date, everything we have heard suggests Barkley and the Eagles organization deny wrong doing.
By now, however, you have all learned league offices could care less about denials. An investigation has been ongoing, one me may hear the verdict on next week.
Resolutions on the Eagles/Saquon Barkley and Falcons/Kirk Cousins tampering cases could come this week per Adam Schefter.
The first Eagles mandatory minicamp under Nick Sirianni approaches. We thought, other than that, most of the month of June would be boring from an Eagles and NFL perspective. What can we say? We were wrong.
Oh yeah! We have been wrong before. If you remember, we thought decisions on the Eagles' tampering case and another involving the Atlanta Falcons and Kirk Cousins would be resolved during the NFL Draft. That turned out to be bad intel.
League offices determined draft week was to early to pronounce verdicts, so we sauntered on. If we're being honest, post-draft and pre-schedule release, we almost forgot there was an investigation going on. How nice is it of ESPN's Adam Schefter to remind us?
We'll see if the NFL follows Schefty's statement with one of their own. Punishment seems likely on the Falcons' end. Cousins admitted to potential violations during his introductory press conference.
Time will tell if league offices issue severe punishment in either case, but based on past evidence, aggressive investigations involving phone records, emails, surveillance cameras, and more could become part of the equation. This could even result in the loss of at least one draft pick. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Heck... We just want to discuss minicamp.
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