The New England Patriots have filed tampering charges against the Houston Texans.
The New England Patriots are back on the NFL news board, as a report from Adam Schefter has revealed they have filed tampering charges against the Houston Texans. The Patriots are claiming that the Texans attempted to hire Nick Caserio as their general manager.
Caserio currently resides as New England’s director of player personnel. The complaint is that the Texans contacted him without making a formal interview request after their termination of Brian Gaine. In a report from the Houston Chronicle, there is a belief that the Texans may have talked about a possible deal during the Patriots’ ring ceremony on June 6 in Boston.
The Patriots filed tampering charges Wednesday against the Houston Texans for the attempted general manager hire of Nick Caserio, league sources told ESPN.
The NFL now is expected to gather relevant informant to open its investigation against Houston, per sources.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 12, 2019
Jack Easterby, who is Houston’s executive vice president of player personnel, is a good friend of Caserio. The timing is interesting, given that Gaine was fired the day after Easterby had talked to Caserio.
In a followup Tweet, Adam Schefter stated that The NFL’s anti-tampering policy states, “Any interference by a member club with the employer-employee relationship of another club or any attempt by a club to impermissibly induce a person to seek employment with that club or with the NFL” is impermissible.”
The NFL is conducting an investigation and is gathering information from both teams. They will also look at phone and text/e-mail records from both sides, to see if there was any illegal contact that happened. If the Texans are indeed found guilty, they could be subject to a fine or even the loss of a draft pick. Of course this isn’t the first time the Patriots have been in the middle of controversy. The most recent drama was “Deflategate,” which resulted in Tom Brady being suspended for the first four games of the 2016 season.
ESPN has also reported that the Texans have officially filed an interview request, however the Patriots have yet to grant permission to do so.
It’s weird to see the Patriots on the other side of the accusation spectrum. Although Houston is no stranger to controversy either. In 2015, the St. Louis Cardinals were investigated by the FBI for allegedly hacking into networks and trying to steal information about the Astros. It will be interesting to see how this plays out on both sides.