Will Steelers be disciplined for talking to Lemon

They were on the phone call with Lemon, while Eagles traded up…how were they supposed to know?

It all happen in the span of a minute or two.

I think the rule is poorly written…and they probably need to come up with a new system….like maybe communication by all teams need to all go through some official NFL zoom/video chat portal?

 

The NFL Network kept playing that clip of Kahn telling Lemon he was coming to the Steelers over and over again last night. The panel cracked up laughing every time it was played. Kahn won't ever get this egg off his face unless Lemon turns out to be a bust and Iheanachor turns into an All-Pro.

 

I'd think that it would only happen if the league, or a complaint from the Eagles, argues intent. Otherwise it was a dumb mix up with no actual affect on the outcome.

 

Not what the rule says. It specifically allows teams not on the clock to be on the phone. The NFL should be explicit if the intent is to disallow all contact while not on the clock.

 

As described in the rest of the post, this will hinge on what "interferes" means. Note also that I didn't leave out the interferes part the the quoted rule. Problem is that the term is undefined here.

Based on the rest of the text and the fact that it didn't impeded Philly at all (because technology made it so people could see incoming calls and who they are from decades ago), I find it hard to believe that the steelers interfered.

As described above, when the Steelers called Lemon (I think) it was before Philly was on the clock. So the act of calling them alone can't be against the rules, right?

Then once the Steelers were made aware that Philly was (1) on the clock and (2) interested, I'm sure we stepped aside.

 

I get how this could be a successful tactic when we were kids and there was only one line and people that called would get a busy signal without the person on the phone knowing someone else was calling.

Those days a long gone.

 

2025 #20 pick jahdae Barron signed 4-yr, $18 million
2025 #21 pick Derrick Harmon signed 4-yr, $ 17.9 million

 

If you think this is clearly a rule violation, do you think the Steelers will get disciplined?

 

I'm Just glad Tomlin isn't here because there would have been 18 pages of how it was his fault.
I actually don't see the problem with what happened. They were going to draft him, and Philly just ahead to draft him. They are not psychic, and knew Philly was jumping ahead to draft him.

 

I don't think this is the first time the Steelers have done this much ado about nothing.

 

This makes sense
Word is called
Tampering?

 

But they were in compliance…they on the phone first. Even before Eagles were on the clock.

How would they know the Eagles moved up, they were busy…on the phone.

That is like driving down the highway at 65 mph, going the speed limit … but while you are driving on the road they change the speed limit in real time to 35 mph, and give you a ticket.

 

Lol
Sorta went from speaking english
To
I don’t know a nese

 

True story
This has happened to me
Of course
I explained it to the officer
To no avail
I got a ticket
Also, doesn’t matter if bushes were covering speed limit sign either

 

I think it will be interesting to see what happens.

I don't see how what the Steelers were doing (talking to a player before his was picked when the team on the clock had no intention of selecting him) could be considered interfering with them.

But I also think that Goodell likes to spin the "wheel of discipline"...so who knows.

 

I don't think this would be tampering.

Tampering seems to be when you are negotiating / offering a contract to a player who is under contract with another team (e.g. negotiating a deal with a pending UFA before he becomes a UFA).

 

If we monopolized Lemon's time, how did Philly talk to him?

Here are the things I think we know.

1. We started talking to him when Dallas was on the clock (we likely knew Dallas wasn't going to pick him too)
2. Philly traded up.
3. Philly called him.
4. He answered Philly's call when he was also talking to us. Because it's not the mid-80s anymore talking to us didn't prevent Philly from being able to contact him (we don't know what the NFL means by interference...but if it means "prevent contact", we certainly didn't do that. And we also didn't "monopolize" his time becuase he literally talked to a different team while we were talking to him).
5. We stopped talking to him so Philly could figure out what they needed to figure out.

We didn't prevent Philly from contacting him. But we might have cost them something on the order of a minute. And you only get 8 minutes on the clock.

Which is probably why we called before we were on the clock (which the rule posted above says you can do).

If the rule is "you can talk to people when you're not on the clock, but if someone who is on the clock calls them too, you're ****ed and you lose draft picks", then the rule is really really stupid.

If this counts as interference, then the rule should just say "you can't talk to players or their agents until you're on the clock". But that's not what it says.

Ultimately, I think we're all just speculating about what the term "interference" means in the context of this rule.

 

Blast clearly has a different idea on the entire saga.

My bet is nothing comes of it; a) it wasn't intentional, b) the rule isn't well written.

 

Steelers were on phone first….im not saying they are allowed to monopolize time, but I don’t see how they should be penalized.

I don’t know what the protocol is once the Eagles tried calling, yet he was on the phone with us. It all seems odd. Is anyone from Goodell’s office monitoring this in real time in order to say one way or the other? The only way Steelers knew Eagles were calling him was because he was on the phone with them.

Steelers got off the phone… no harm, no foul.

There is no evidence of Steelers trying to do something nefarious, which is why the rule is in place.