Hardman possibly admitted that Veach tampered
 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Former Jets WR/Super Bowl hero Mecole Hardman, appearing on <a href="https://twitter.com/Realrclark25?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Realrclark25</a>&#39;s Pivot podcast, shed some light on what led to his trade from the Jets. For instance:<br><br>* Hardman said he refused to return punts vs KC because he felt STC Brant Boyer had misled him about the…</p>&mdash; Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) <a href="https://twitter.com/RichCimini/status/1762610279320277444?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

* Hardman candidly admitted that, by that point, "I was so checked out, like, it was over with. I had already talked to (KC GM Brett) Veach and Pat (Mahomes), like, ‘Come get me.’" Two weeks later, he was traded back to KC.

Can these clowns learn to shut their ****ing mouths?

Seems like not? Hardman says that he made those statements to Veach and to Mahomes, he doesn't say that they responded to it or that they reached out to him.

Shhhh....

I have to believe that Veach is smarter than that, despite the verbage that Hardman uses.

He talked to Veach. That's how he phrases it. Hopefully a nothing urger but it may very well lead to an investigation.

Hardman has a unique ability to hurt the team that continues to give him chance after chance.

I want to like the guy but...

If Hardman contacted Veach and Mahomes without any contact from the Chiefs first, is that really tampering?

Depends on how Veach responded.

No. Veach (or any other GM for that matter) is not responsible for what some player sends to them. Hopefully he didn't respond and engage in dialogue.

Hardman might be walking around with a winning lottery ticket in his pocket...man he does some dumb things...

How is it tampering when the guy sucked so bad for the other team that he had 4 yards

This was the best part:

* On the Jets' 2023 culture/Hackett: "You just got a new (offensive) coaching staff that came in and there’s no standard there. Everybody does what they want to do. Granted, the defense has more of a stabilized standard with the coaching staff on that side, so the defense has a standard. But the offense is just like, 'We’ll just figure it out. It’s Aaron’s show. Let Aaron do what Aaron does.' Then when Aaron goes down, it’s like we don’t know what to do."

I think that's says a lot about Saleh's leadership, which you already got the impression was lacking. Not that I'm dismissing Hackett's incompetence, he's clearly no more than Rodgers' sidekick.

I agree with the concept of not micromanaging something not in your lane. Problem is they left the offense to officer doofy.

Hopefully Veach has his tracker phone for times like this so he can dispose the evidence LMAO

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McDermott was in the competition committee meetings wanting rule changes so much. They just put him on the committee. Heads will roll like medieval England!

It's not tampering to talk to a player or front office member on the field after a game and say "come get me." Which is what I believe probably happened (KC played Jets week 4, Hardman was traded week 7).

And even if it's not, easy to say it was and let it go at that.

Doesn't matter what Hardman did, with regards to tampering.

Only way it's tampering is if Veach responded and actively engaged in discussions insinuating they might try and acquire him. If there is no proof of that, then this thing has no legs.

The only thing this may have done was let Veach know he might possibly be available before trade deadline, but again, that's not on Veach. That was Hardman.

Hardman can text Mahomes. They're friends and played together for years. It's not tampering to text a player on another team. Unless Mahomes said, I talked to Veach and we coming to save you (which obviously he didn't), there's nothing to this.

Just a frustrated player wanting out. Nothing more.

If the NFL wants to punish someone over this (which they might due to their stupid witchhunts with no evidence - see Hill, Elliott, etc.) then they should punish Hardman.

But honestly there's nothing to this. Just the typical reerun fan reaction from other teams fans 'they cheated! Take their 1st round pick'. :rolleyes:

It was a mind season trade, does it really matter?

Hardman can't trade himself. He wasn't an FA so how is this tampering if the Jets let them talk.

This is silly. Veach and the Chiefs can't control what Hardman said to them after a game.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Never had talks with KC before the trade, so we can CLEAR THAT UP! The Jets handled my trade on their own and did the right thing by sending me back to KC! <a href="https://t.co/W5A1uYXsM1">https://t.co/W5A1uYXsM1</a></p>&mdash; Mecole Hardman Jr. (@MecoleHardman4) <a href="https://twitter.com/MecoleHardman4/status/1762715282965975320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

LMAO yeah, there's your confirmation that the team knows what Hardman implied and they're not too pleased with him about it. Unless you think Hardman tweeted that PR statement of his own accord.

Is it tampering if it goes through an intermediary, since they’re allowed to talk to players on other teams?

Hardman<>Mahomes <>Veach

Players, especially former teammates can do whatever they want. They can text Mahomes "get me home". No tampering.

Former players can text or call Veach begging to come back. As long as he doesn't respond, he's fine. I'm sure he didn't respond. He's not a stupid man.

Who even cares. If Veach ISN'T tampering I'd think a bit less of him as a GM. ALL teams do it. The problem is this dime brained buffoon running his mouth and saying the quiet part out loud, opening the door for us to potentially lose an important draft pick.

I talk to my dogs.

They don't talk back.

Veach isn't dumb and Andy's already had his hand slapped by the league. I very much doubt there's a paper trail and it wouldn't honestly surprise me if Veach just didn't respond at all.

I ain't worried. It's not like everyone and their brother didn't see a Hardman return as likely (or at least possible) several weeks before it happened.

I think it says more about Hackett.

I mean it's not like Reid was setting the tone when Bob Sutton was running the defense. Now he's not doing it with Spags. When you have a HC who's a specialist on one side of the ball, he's going to do exactly what Sutton, Payton, Saleh, Belichick and other 'specialist' coaches have done - turn the keys to the unit over to the other guy.

It's crazy that Andy lost draft picks for the Maclin thing. Every team in the league does the same shit every year. I guess being able to prove it was the difference.

YO MECOLE!

https://youtu.be/72bHv2E6I0I?si=8MGNu0QQ37qBcGbe

It's not illegal to talk to former teammates and other people you worked for. Unless they can prove Veach called Hardman and told him their plan to trade for him, this is nothing IMO

First the owner ranks now this...Bills/Broncos win another Superbowl!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Joe Douglas didn’t seem thrilled with the remarks from WR Mecole Hardman that, while on the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jets?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Jets</a>, he contacted the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chiefs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Chiefs</a> and told them to come get him. That’s tampering. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NYJ?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NYJ</a> can, and likely will, ask league to look into that.</p>&mdash; Connor Hughes (@Connor_J_Hughes) <a href="https://twitter.com/Connor_J_Hughes/status/1762893943019069681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I mean even if they **** us and rule it as tampering, the most that can happen is the picks get switched back right?

It's amazing how many idiots don't understand what qualifies as tampering.

The Chiefs can't be punished simply because Hardman said "come get me". They have no control over that whatsoever.

And Joe Douglas could go ****ing himself with his cry baby bullshit.

The Jets are hilarious now their punter is ripping in Hardman.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Be careful getting information from disgruntled former employees. Getting beat out by a rookie free agent after being guaranteed millions of dollars is tough to deal with. Entitlement is a killer of opportunity. You have to earn it every year.</p>&mdash; Thomas Morstead (@thomasmorstead) <a href="https://twitter.com/thomasmorstead/status/1762880317784777128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Came here to say the same. If that's true and he's pitching a fit, what an absolute loser. Imagine being the architect of that dumpster fire and acting like a guy you never played and were lucky to unload for anything possibly being tampered with (which he wasn't) is a federal case?! Joe Douglas trying to deflect attention away from himself...

They're all mad because Hardman put them on blast, he literally said they have no concept of how to practice, helmets all over the field, and their entire offensive strategy was just let Aaron do Aaron things.

I'm guessing Brett and Andy get opposing players asking for a spot every weekend.

Can’t wait to watch that organization burn back to the ground AGAIN after a failed season.

There's so much internal combustion in that franchise it's absolutely going to blow up.

Wilson drama; Rodgers blaming management; Owner publicly putting pressure on Saleh to win this year.

It's going to get ugly.

He called their GM. That's what he's suppose to do.

Hardman can say Rodgers gave him mushrooms. Goodell will wave it

I already hate this day.

Feel bad for Hardman. Dude's not exactly a guy you treat with soft gloves, but he deserved to get a shot at a contact and treated like a professional. I've been there in my career, super disappointing to join a new org and find out everything was lies. Would love to have him back on a minimal contract, he's won me over throughout the years and especially after his big catch this season! Best of luck!

Apparently Mecole leaked the offensive gameplan to the "Georgia Eagles"?

Jets are a bunch of bitter bitches and a loser organization. One of the 3 worst in the NFL

Was already not thrilled with the compensation we gave up just to get him BACK. Really don't need to lose anything else.

We won a Super Bowl because of him…. The compensation was more than fine

Glad he was here. Given his role on the Jets, though, one would think a swap of 7ths or a single 7th should get it done.

OR, just re-sign the guy for peanuts in the first place.

if you could **** a team over just by texting them to come get me back then these teams would get these texts multiple times a day. Veach is smart enough to know not to respond to that.

If a club is contacted by a player (or his representative) whois under contract to or whose negotiating rights are held by another club, and such player has not been given permission to negotiate with other clubs, or such player is not in a permissible negotiating period under the terms of an operative collective bargaining agreement, then the contacted club is prohibited from (i) negotiating with the player or his agent; (ii) discussing even in general terms the player’s possible employment with the contacted club; or (iii) discussing the player’s contract or his potential or ongoing contract negotiations with his current club.

In addition, the contacted club representative must inform the player or his representative that under NFL rules the club is not permitted to discuss such matters, and, if such matters are raised by or with the player or his representative, the club representative must immediately report such contact to the owner or operating head of the club that holds the player’s rights.

So yeah, even if Veach didn't respond, not immediately letting the Jets know Hardman got in contact is considered tampering. Thanks a whole bunch, you loose lipped ****er.

Hardman should probably at least wait until he has either resigned with the Chiefs or signed with a new team before doing all of this talking and potentially burning bridges.

As of now he is a free agent without a team.

Unless it was a text, which I highly doubt, there is absolutely no way of proving this.

Or this ****ing reeruned dipshit can just shut his mouth and not bring it up at all so it's never an issue. At the very least there's going to be an investigation now.

Okay now you’re pointing out the bright side of all of this.

LMAO Jesus, Hardman...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Yes, I’m told there was validated belief from the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jets?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Jets</a> that WR Mecole Hardman, frustrated by his lack-of usage, leaked game plans to the opposition, as implied by several players (Sauce Gardner, Kenny Yeboah) today. <br><br>Not just the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Eagles?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Eagles</a> game, but also the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chiefs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Chiefs</a>.… <a href="https://t.co/d6LlvPnDaJ">pic.twitter.com/d6LlvPnDaJ</a></p>&mdash; Connor Hughes (@Connor_J_Hughes) <a href="https://twitter.com/Connor_J_Hughes/status/1763002225029218761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 29, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

LMAO He's dumb, but no way he's THIS dumb.

Lol

Like anyone needs to leak the game plan when you have the worst QB in the league.

What is a validated belief?

Dumb thread. That's not tampering.

Once Aaron went down, they didn't need to leak the gameplan.

The whole world knew what they were doing.

This is getting stupid. The Jets being the petty, shitty team they’ve always been. Losers make excuses. We win championships!

So what happens is a player under contract contacts another team, the contacted team reports the contact to a the team with contracting rights to the player, and said team with contracting rights says “swap us your sixth round pick for our seventh round pick and you can have him” folllowed by both teams agreeing to such a trade?

So this "tampering" netted the Jets a draft pick for a malcontent who wasn't playing, and the Jets are mad about it? What, is Joe Douglas butthurt that Hardman did his job for him?

Mecole why?:$2500:

Is he trying to guarantee no one except the Chiefs will keep him on the team? Who is going to want him now?

Mecole, please shut up:doh!: and just be the dude that caught the winning touchdown from Patrick "Gold Jacket" Mahomes.

If he has an agent, they should have negotiated some ability to approve final edit of the podcast to give him a chance to edit out some of the stupid shit that Mecole should not say about himself.

And the way Mecole describes Kelce going apeshit at halftime of Super Bowl seems like something he should not share so freely.

That is certainly how it looked from afar.

Does the NFL want to punish the Chiefs? Not that I am aware of.
Does the media and others hope for anything negative for the Chiefs? Hell Yes, they all do.

If Mecole mentioned this to Veach and Veach did not report it we will get penalized.

If they can prove it.

I didn't know about the reporting part. But the fact that the Jets are pursuing an investigation pretty much proves Veach didn't report it to them.

Why would you say he's dumb?? Smh grow up you don't know that man :rolleyes:

"Chiefs can't win without the refs or cheating (same breath) We have to get Jones/Sneed. They're the missing piece."

It doesn't prove any of it happened. So far the only proof is Hardman shooting his mouth off and then retracting. We'll see if there's anything else, but I think Veach would be smarter than that.

Gronk would eat cat food on purpose, probably does. People get used to it and move on

Probably because he's the player that's pissed Mahomes off the most for routinely making dumb mental mistakes.

But maybe he's secretly an MIT level intelligent person, so I apologize to you and him for insinuating he's dumb.