We talked earlier about Gunther Cunningham's interest in a few of his former pupils with the Kansas City Chiefs. Specifically, he said, "They keep wanting to dump players. I would like to be there to catch a lot of them, because I know a couple of those guys."
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk calls this a "textbook violation of the tampering rules by expressing general interest in multiple players under contract with another team."
What exactly is tampering?
From NFL spokesperson Greg Aiello, via a Q&A with the Star Tribune:
The term tampering, as used within the National Football League, refers to any interference by a member club with the employer-employee relationship of another club or any attempt by a club to impermissably induce a person to seek employment with that club or with the NFL.
A league source told Florio that "agents for Chiefs players who are eligible for free agency or are being squeezed to take a pay cut will now use those words from Cunningham as leverage."
"We'll just go to Detroit," an agent might say. "Cunningham has said he wants some of his old guys."
As Florio has previously pointed out, the league rarely delves too deep into possible tampering claims and the league never comments on tampering claims until/unless the announcement is regarding discipline imposed.
(H/T WTexKC for the first FanShot)