Jon Gruden Has No Issues Tampering Trying to Recruit Richard Sherman

The NFL has plenty of rules in place. These rules were created to keep things fair and balanced. Some coaches don’t care too much about rules, like Jon Gruden,  who is not about to let tampering stop him from recruiting Richard Sherman.  So what exactly is tampering?

According to the rule book via PFT:

From page 5 of the NFL’s Anti-Tampering Policy:

“Any public or private statement of interest, qualified or unqualified, in another club’s player to that player’s agent or representative, or to a member of the news media, is a violation of this Anti-Tampering Policy. (Example of a prohibited comment: ‘He’s an excellent player, and we’d very much like to have him if he were available, but another club holds his rights.’)”

This is one rule Gruden scoffs at, as he’s currently openly recruiting Sherman:

“I know there’s tampering rules out there and I don’t want to bring up anything that might create a problem for you, because I know that you’ve been fined a few shekels over the years,” Collinsworth said.

“Yes I have,” Gruden said. “I’ve been fined, I’ve been punished very, very harshly. Richard Sherman, if you are a free agent, which there is a rumor you are, we are looking for an alpha presence in our secondary. Somebody that could play this Hawk 3-press technique with the read step. If you’re available and interested, maybe you and I can get together at some point off air.”

Said Sherman in response: “There’s a conversation to be had, for sure. I am free and available these days.”

As one General Manager said, unsolicited and unprompted, in response to Gruden’s comments, “This is blatant tampering.”

Gruden doesn’t care, he needs to get the Raiders to the playoffs.

If that means doing a little tampering, so be it.


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