When you post a thread title like yours, you had better be able to back it up with fact. I highly doubt that we will have to give up a dirty jock strap for any tampering. Now, I hope we kick the daylights out of NE this Sunday at 4pm. Bring it!
If the Jets violated the letter of the law, no negotiations on compensation between player and potential new team, then it could be interpreted that they attempted to unilaterally set a level of compensation for Branch and did attempt to lower his trade value. Other teams have gotten more for #1 WR's such as Randy Moss and Joey Galloway. I think the Boys gave up two firsts for him. The Pats were asking for two firsts (too high) but were probably expecting to get another pick in addition to the first rounder they got. I'm not going to be shocked if the Jets have to cough up a draft pick. I'm surprised they went after Branch at all.
The Tampering charge claim by the Pats has all the makings of a 3 yr old child's temper tantrum.:smile: The Pats opened the door when they allowed Branch's agent to negotiate with other NFL teams. Hopefully Goodell will send Kraft crying back up the Mass. Tpk.ats_suck:
The letter of the law doesn't really mean much. It's how the arbitrator interprets the law that matters, and exactly what can be proven. If teams can't put together packages when players are on the trade block, this effectively chills any possibility of trading. You can't just trade and then name everything later. Look for the players union and people with common sense to contest this.
the Pats claimed to never be asking for 2 first rounders. they are claiming that the offer for a second round pick weakended their position, but they got better than a second round pick--a first round pick, so the deal they got was better tthan the one the Jets offered. I'm not sure how you can claim one offer weakened the other when the offer accepted ended up better than the one in dispute. seems like a major hole in the Pats need to have to prove the Jets offer weakended their position when they ended up with a better offer.
How can we make the value of Branch less? They already go much much more then Branch is worth!!! Number 1 pick.......................
LOL!!! Yeap your right. Before the Jets got involved in trade talks, all the Patriots had was a player sitting out until Week 10. The Seahawks offer a 2nd round pick which is refused. Then the Jets get involved and offer the Pats a 2nd round pick which is also refused. Meanwhile, Branch sits at home during Sunday's game, making it painfully obvious that the guy isnt going to suit up this year for the Pats. Then the Pats turn around and trade him to the Seahawks for a 1st round pick. Fact - The market value for Branch was a 2nd round pick before the Jets got involved. Fact - The market value for Branch became a 1st round pick after the Jets got involved. How do we know this? Because the Patriots accepted a 1st round pick. If the felt it wasn't adequate compensation, then do you think BB and Pioli would have accepted it? If anything, the Pats should send a 7th rd pick to Tannenbaum for drumming interest and creating value for the asset they traded. I can assure you that without the Jets involvement, there is no way the Seahawks would have budged off of their offer of a #2 in exchange for Branch. This is nothing more than posturing by BB and Pioli prior to this weekend's game. They are playing mind games and this is a frivolous complaint.
The thing that gets me is that Branch was aloud to talk to other teams to seek a trade. Only the friggin Jets can pull this off getting a tampering charge on someone they can talk to.
I agree completely, they were not going get more than a 1st, which im shoecked they even got that. If anything IMO this may have made SEA realize they needed to offer more than a second round pick to get him.
This is crap. They keep us from getting Branch by playing the "not good enough, we think we'll keep him" card. Making sure that the Jets didn't get him. Which, subsequently kept the Jets from being even more competitive against them. Not an accident there. They'd given Branch the go ahead to seek a trade. They didn't tell him "Seek a trade. But, not with the Jets." Do they really expect to be compensated for depriving a team of a highly rated player. Well they must be really afraid of losing the Jets game. Because, I've never seen such poor sportmanship. We're just lucky that our OLine, Receivers, and Chad have all stepped up and made us a competitive team. ....Sh!t, they really expected to tell Branch that they couldn't reach a deal with the Jets without telling him "Why?" ....What dicks!
I don't have a problem with the argument that the Jets tampered. I actually think that they did; and I think that a good many people here may even agree that they did. We went into the Branch negotiations with a dual purpose - first, to see if we could get a good player at a reasonable price; and second, to see if we couldn't to further tweak the Patriots. Hell, we had a handful of chest-thumping threads, where people were praising our front office for being aggressive and, at the very least, "disrupting the Patriots," and so forth That's tampering. That's actually the textbook example of tampering. It's the draft pick compensation part that I don't buy. There's nothing that says the Patriots are entitled to draft picks for incidents of tampering. Yes, it could happen; but someone is trying to equate this to the Parcells/Belichick/Edwards coaching swaps and taking a wild guess. In the end, I just think this will find a way to go away. New Commissioner. New season. New CBA. New television contract. I'm sure the NFL isn't interested in hearing the most successful franchise of the last five years whine thay they were treated unfairly when they grabbed a first round pick for a good-not-great player. They're just not very sympathetic claimants.
I disagree. Tampering implies that the deal was not in good faith and for disruptive purposes. It was in good faith and handled in a manner that was fair to all. Just because Seattle was desperate enough to give up a first round pick in the end is not good enough for the poor sportsmanship of New England. Expecting to keep a player in the dark like that is a union issue.
John Clayton said that tampering will be hard to prove and most likely we wont be charged for a pick.
Welcome to the internet. You will never be able to prove anything. I could be GW Bush's nephew just as well as this story from one of the major weeklies writers. You never know.
Exactly. Also, even if the Jets violated the CBA, that doesn't automatically constitute tampering. New England opened the door by allowing Branch to seek a trade. They are just trying to save face with these charges.
