Did the Washington Commanders do any tampering, as it relates to the report from ESPN over the weekend that they may have reached out to Andrew Luck or his camp when looking for a QB last offseason?
The Junkies, earlier this morning, said Ron Rivera couldn’t be “that dumb,” and John Keim told BMitch & Finlay on 106.7 The Fan that he didn’t see it as a big deal – but you can’t snuff The Rooster on this one, because if you ask Chris Russell, the answer is, albeit accidentally, that ‘there’s a good chance’ they did.
“Listen, Andrew Luck is still contractually tied to the Colts, so if you reach out to him or his agent without going to the Colts first, then technically, you are tampering,” Russell said Monday. “I think this is a little different than the Cardinals and Eagles situation, or Tom Brady, because it’s the Washington Commanders…and a chance for the Colts to sucker the Commanders a second time after Carson Wentz!”
No one is sure who exactly the Commanders may or may not have reached out to about Luck or the nature of the conversations, but the Colts are “seeking to learn more” according to the ESPN report.
“This could be about other teams as well, but it’s pretty clear, because John Keim wrote about it a year ago, and then again this weekend,” Russell said, “and then, we have the possible penalty that the Commanders might face – and that’s why this story is once again huge.”
Huge especially because the Commanders already got into some hot water for violating offseason activity rules, so this could be a second strike on the 2022 offseason, and, as Russell said, it would be a double-dip after the Colts basically fleeced the Commanders for Wentz.
The problem, though, is that it’s likely new ownership will clean house, so any draft compensation the Commanders would lose in a tampering settlement wouldn’t hurt Dan Synder, Ron Rivera, or anyone else involved in actually doing it.
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“If the Commanders followed correct protocol, then there’s nothing to worry about – but if they called his dad, or his agent, or someone, maybe they did violate a wacky rule,” Russell said. “I won’t kill them for being stupid, though, and not knowing this, because maybe they just went to someone and said, ‘hey, longshot, how about it?’ And that may be a violation, technically, but Luck has been retired for three years!”
Or maybe, Russell posited, the Commanders did indeed do the dumbest thing of all: because Keim wrote about the Luck idea a year ago, he had to get that from “somebody, somewhere, associated with someone in the building,” and according to the NFL’s policies, saying anything to the media about interest in another team’s player is illegal.
“That may be dumber than just calling Andrew Luck, because you have to know better,” Russell exhorted. “Maybe, they’ve just been breaking the rules all along, and I have a harder time with that.”
Listen to the entire first hour of Monday’s Chris Russell Show above to hear all of his thoughts on the situation!
Follow Chris Russell on Twitter: @Russellmania621
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