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Colts Corner Vontae Davis Claims Hackers Tweeted Out Chiefs Tampering With Sean Smith

God bless Colts corner Vontae Davis. He seems like a nice guy and, personally, I don't think he is inclined to intentionally get anyone into trouble. Unfortunately, he might have just fingered the Kansas City Chiefs for tampering.

By Brad Wells Updated
Jonathan Daniel

God bless Colts corner Vontae Davis. He seems like a nice guy and, personally, I don't think he is inclined to intentionally get anyone into trouble. Unfortunately, he might have just fingered the Kansas City Chiefs for tampering.

Here's what he tweeted earlier today:

Now, for those of you who might be confused by Vontae's tweet, NFL rules prevent the Chiefs from doing what Vontae says they did: Talk to safety Sean Smith. Smith does not become a free agent until the new league year, which is March 12th. The negotiating period for free agents begins March 9th. Only then can teams talk to free agents.

If they do so before then, it's called "tampering."

Teams that tamper can be fined or docked draft picks. It's a big no-no even though everyone knows all teams do it. It's just really hard for the league to catch teams and players in the act.

Because just about everyone and their mother retweeted Vontae's missive, he followed up with this gem:

Sean Smith and Vontae Davis were teammates in Miami from from 2009-2012. Vontae was traded to the Colts during preseason last year.

My opinion: Vontae doesn't seem like the kind of person who would intentionally finger the Chiefs for tampering. Again, I don't know the guy, but it doesn't seem in his nature based on what I do know. As for the "hacker" excuse, if you buy that, I got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you, real cheap.

Needless to say, I think Vontae is going to stay away from Twitter for a while.

[UPDATE]: Interesting info from NFL.com's Around the League writer Marc Sessler, taken from his post on the Vontae Davis tweet story:

A pair of agents told Around the League at the NFL Scouting Combine they planned to have deals verbally agreed to before the start of the March 9 negotiating period. In theory, nobody should be talking before then, but that window has been ignored. Besides, this kind of chatter between teams and agents usually proceeds without penalty.

Tampering happens all the time. I'd be surprised the Chiefs got into any significant trouble over this.

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