Niners Fined a Pick for Tampering with Briggs

According to ESPN.com, the NFL has decided to strip the San Francisco 49ers of their fifth round pick in the draft.  The league also decided to swap out the 49ers third round draft pick with the Bears’ third round pick, bumping the Bears up a few spots with that pick.  All of this is due to the fact that the 49ers were found guilty of tampering with Chicago linebacker Lance Briggs during the 2007 season, during which time Briggs was under contract as the franchise player for the Chicago Bears.  According to this report, the 49ers had improper contact with Briggs’ agent Drew Rosenhaus.

While the 49ers admit to having contact with Rosenhaus, they still maintain that there was nothing improper about their dealings with the agent.  The team has said they will work harder to remain within compliance with the league on this matter in the future.  However, can we just point out how horribly flubbed this issue was by the 49ers?  They tamper with Briggs, then fail to sign him (or even garner much of his attention), and then they lose a draft pick and draft position over it?  Someone is going to get fired over this one in San Francisco.

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Permalink - Posted in General on March 25, 2008 - Post a comment