NFL teams can submit rule proposals to be voted on by the competition committee each year around this time, and the Pittsburgh Steelers have put forth a proposal this year. They seek to make the free agency tampering period competitively fairer with a couple minor changes, per an NFL release passed along by CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones on X.
Meetings of any kind with players are not allowed during the tampering period, and you can’t even arrange for travel plans until the start of the new league year. Either of those two things would be considered beyond the scope of tampering and would be in violation of NFL rules.
The Steelers seek to allow for one virtual meeting of up to an hour with a pending unrestricted free agent. The meeting would require that the player’s agent be present and that a summary of the call be sent to the NFL player personnel department with specific details attached. They also want for teams and players that agree to terms to have the ability to book travel arrangements. The travel would not occur until the start of the new league year, but the arrangements could be made ahead of time.
Both of these would be quality-of-life upgrades for players, agents, and teams throughout the tampering period. They wouldn’t need to scramble to make travel plans at the last possible second when the clock strikes 4 PM/ET at the start of the new league year, and it would also give teams the ability to speak directly with players ahead of time.
This could possibly mitigate situations where players agree to terms and then later change their mind before the contract is actually signed. It is much easier to have a meeting of the minds when speaking to a player directly rather than going through his agent, who is probably dealing with dozens of other negotiations at the same time with other clients.
This could potentially also lead to more transparent negotiations for the sake of the media. Not that the Steelers have the media in mind with this proposal, but there could be an increase of teams’ reported interest in players before the deals actually get signed since there would be virtual meetings taking place.
To summarize the rule submitted by Pittsburgh, the memo reads as follows:
Effect: Permits clubs to have one video or phone call with a prospective unrestricted free agent during the two-day negotiation period. Permits clubs to make travel arrangements with such players upon agreeing to terms.
Reason: Competitively fairer.
It should be noted that Mike Tomlin is a member of the competition committee. One of the last proposals the Steelers put forward was bumping back the trade deadline by a week and that rule change was accepted.
