Kirk Cousins said it. It’s now a matter of the Falcons proving he didn’t mean what he said.
Cousins’ comments at his introductory news conference in Atlanta set off an NFL investigation into a potential violation of anti-tampering rules.
The quarterback said he met with or spoke to members of the Falcons’ staff on the day before free agency began. Players who are represented by an agent are prohibited from meeting with or speaking to teams during the two-day negotiating window before free agency officially opens.
On Tuesday, a day after Falcons owner Arthur Blank denied the team tampered with Cousins before signing him to a four-year, $180 million contract, coach Raheem Morris intimated that Cousins’ excitement led to a confused timeline.
“I’m really not allowed to really discuss right now while it’s under review, but I’ve got a lot of confidence in our people that we did the right thing,” Morris said. “It is what it is, and some of those things happen when you get excited, when you’re talking about those things. We’ll talk about those things at the appropriate time. It’s just right now it’s probably not that time.”
The tampering investigation should be easy to prove or disprove: Video is available from the facility to show whether Cousins did or didn’t meet with Atlanta’s head athletic trainer and phone records to show whether he did or didn’t talk to director of player personnel Ryan Pace during the 52-hour negotiating window.