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The NFL has adjusted the rules of the legal tampering period to allow the actual negotiation of contracts in the two days before free agency begins. The revised rules are clear about what is prohibited. Among other things, a team cannot “execute an agreement in principle” with the agent for a player who is not yet free to sign elsewhere.

Based on multiple reports from multiple members of the small army of reporters who are employed directly by the NFL, the Raiders have violated this provision by striking an “agreement in principle” with guard Kelechi Osemele.

The involvement of NFL employees in reporting to the public violations of the NFL’s rules regarding the legal tampering period makes an already bizarre situation even more confusing. The league on one hand wants teams to not reach agreements in principle during the two-day negotiation period; on the other hand, the league employs people with the primary job duty of gathering evidence of instances in which the rule has been violated.

NFL Media is the NFL. In this specific context, the NFL is both prohibiting certain conduct and generating Internet traffic (and presumably revenue) by publicizing instances of the very conduct that the NFL prohibits.

The easiest solution would be to allow agreements in principle to be reached and announced during the legal tampering period, with the caveat that the deals aren’t final until the league year opens and the contract is officially signed.