Darrelle Revis

Why is the NFL suddenly so concerned about tampering? (Tony Kurdzuk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

OK. Deep breath. Let's unpack this story about the NFL investigator who visited the Jets to "monitor" or "interrogate" whatever negotiations they might have had with Darrelle Revis before the official start of free agency.

First of all, the story's a week old: Jason Cole of Bleacher Report reported on March 13 that the league had monitored not just the Jets vis-a-vis Revis, but the bargaining several teams had done with prospective free agents. So why are we reading about all this now? Because Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News amplified it Friday morning by placing his own exclusive stamp on the proceedings. The NFL's point? To make sure no one was tampering during its legal tampering period, which is when tampering is OK, but tampering tampering is not. I can explain.

The NFL's so-called legal tampering period ran from March 7 at noon till March 10 at 4 p.m., which is when free agency (wink) officially began (wink). That window was meant to allow teams to negotiate—but not "offer" or enter into any agreements—with free agents from other teams, and it was implemented to avoid the free-for-all that used to ensue between the combine and the start of free agency, but which instead has had the effect of cramming that same frenzy of agent-driven leveraging into a span of four days.

Which brings us to Revis, the all-everything cornerback, and the Jets, who have since reunited, in case you weren't aware. The NFL already has enough evidence to do something to the Jets for tampering with Revis and the Patriots. The league's anti-tampering policy, which you can peruse for yourself right here, explicitly prohibits team personnel from doing exactly what Jets owner Woody Johnson did three months ago.

Said Johnson at the time: "Darrelle is a great player. If I thought I could've gotten Darrelle for that [the $12 million the Pats gave him in 2014], I probably would've taken him. It was our best judgment to do what we did. Darrelle is a great player. I'd love Darrelle to come back."

And straight out of the 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 the Anti-Tampering Policy."

No room for doubt there. Johnson, whether intentionally or not, violated the rule, even if every other NFL owner likely would have said something similar by the time he got to the bottom of his next tumbler of Johnny Walker Blue. (Seriously, it would have been a bigger story if Johnson had said he wanted nothing to do with Revis.) And twice in recent years, the league has stripped teams of draft picks for more or less doing what Johnson did.

So why would the league—the same league whose own investigator was either too lazy or stupid to ask anyone for a copy of the Ray Rice tape—feel the need to take this further? What would the league gain from having an investigator "monitor" (Cole's word) or "interrogate" (Mehta's) Jets officials on the matter?

Look, it's not like anyone can pop into the Jets' facility and rap on general manager Mike Maccagnan's office door. Whatever investigator the league sent to Florham Park wouldn't have been armed with subpoena power or a search warrant, so he presumably would have had to identify himself, and his purpose for showing up. Does anyone really think the Jets would let one of the league's private eyes into the building if Maccagnan and the rest of the Jets' front office were secretly ironing out a deal (without agreeing to it!) with Revis' agents? Not only that, but on the morning after that investigator visited the Jets, the league put out a memo warning every team it would look into the release of contract info before the official start of free agency. Yet, as Deadspin's Barry Petchesky noted, that memo never mentioned that many of those leaks reached the public thanks to the handiwork of a variety of NFL Media reporters who work for the league.

The NFL doesn't want you to concern yourself with such details, because the NFL wants to remind you it's in charge, even as it benefits from having its most picayune transactions dominate the sports-news cycle during a month otherwise devoted to college basketball teams no one's heard of.

The Jets indeed appear to be guilty of tampering—albeit in the most innocuous way imaginable—and they could very well face the consequences. But the league's sudden crackdown in the name of its tampering policy is every bit as stupid as it sounds: tampering is rampant, everyone knows it, and the NFL has all but encouraged it while posing as though it's something that can't be tolerated.

Dom Cosentino may be reached at dcosentino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @domcosentino. Find NJ.com Jets on Facebook.