Amidst the euphoria of Michael Crabtree contract signing, people might have missed out on the news that Braylon Edwards was dealt by the Cleveland Browns to the New York Jets. Edwards has plenty of baggage and I don't think many people are surprised he was traded. What is interesting though is the team that acquired Edwards.
Now I certainly wouldn't want to accuse anybody of tampering (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), but the timing is certainly amusing nonetheless. Ray Ratto made a good point today that maybe the 49ers can actually thank Braylon Edwards for finally getting things done. If he doesn't get in a pissing contest with LeBron James, maybe he doesn't finally get dealt and thus completely take away the Jets leverage.
But we're not here to talk about that. What I want to know, is whether the 49ers continue pressing on the tampering charges. As nocal81 pointed out in our Crabtree thread, even though Crabtree signed, the tampering charges are still on the table. When the 49ers got hosed by the Bears and the NFL, Lance Briggs had already re-signed with the Bears.
So would it be greedy to still want to punish the Jets? Obviously no if they broke the rules. Of course, if the tampering charge dies away, there are two potential responses: Either the NFL is screwing over the 49ers once again, or maybe the charges did not quite have the legs we might have initially thought. The coming weeks will remain interesting on this front.
So, do people think anything will come of the tampering charges at this point? Even if the Braylon Edwards trade is a coincidence, it's certainly amusing timing.