AP

The legal tampering period starts at noon tomorrow.

That’s apparently not soon enough for a few teams.

According to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, five teams have already shown interest in Browns free agent wide receiver Terrelle Pryor.

If it was just a number, and one of them was the always-active “Mystery Team” (the annual offseason champion), it would be easy enough to overlook.

But this report names names, identifying the Steelers, Giants, 49ers, Titans and Eagles as the teams showing interest in Pryor.

Now, no one should be naive enough to think this didn’t start last week, when teams and agents convened in Indianapolis for the Scouting Combine. But for such a blatant violation to be reported underscores just how flimsy a policy this actually is, and why teams largely treat the league’s anti-tampering policy like some other kind of paper.

Browns executive Sashi Brown said at the Combine last week he knew Pryor was ”effectively in free agency” and that he knew teams would start to make contact.

Whether they’re allowed to or not doesn’t seem to be complicating that.