The first trade on Day 1 of the 2023 NFL Draft was one of the most ludicrous things we’ve seen in the history of the league. While the national anthem was being sung, we had one of the biggest, most bizarre news dumps in recent memory regarding the Cardinals hiring former Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon.
The NFL news-dumped a Cardinals/Eagles tampering charge and invented a rule on the fly
What is this?
Joel Angel Juarez/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
To be clear: This is not a rule. It has never been a rule. There is nothing in the NFL rules which allows teams to settle a tampering charge themselves, without intervention and investigation by the league.
According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network there was improper contact between the Cardinals GM Mani Ossenfort and Gannon in the week preceding the Super Bowl. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen tampering charges, but the first time teams have been allowed to settle it themselves.
This year we have another tampering charge resulting in the 1st round being altered. The Miami Dolphins were forced to forfeit their top pick for having improper contact with former Saints coach Sean Payton, and Buccaneers QB Tom Brady.
News dumping in the minutes before the first round began is a weird admission by the league that they know this isn’t the right way of handling things, but the expedient one. Rather than the Cardinals being penalized with a punishment by the NFL they simply swapped picks in the 3rd round, allowing the Eagles to move up — netting a mid-round pick in 2024 in exchange.
This is one of those moments a lot of people will forget, but it’s one of the strangest pre-draft twists in recent memory.
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