The Minnesota Vikings faced an uphill battle to bring Kirk Cousins back into the fold in 2024, but the behavior of the Atlanta Falcons made doing so considerably more difficult.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk appeared on the March 20 edition of the “What The Football” podcast and accused the Falcons of “the most blatant case of tampering” he has ever encountered.
“Tampering is such a key part of the NFL and it happens all the time. … Conversations occur when the agents and the representatives from teams are face-to-face,” Florio said.
“But there’s a certain element of discretion that gets applied where you don’t just make clear to the world that you tampered with this guy. And the Falcons’ pursuit of Kirk Cousins, to me, is the most blatant case of tampering I’ve ever seen.”
Florio Accused Falcons of ‘Tampering Within Tampering’ by Getting Kirk Cousins to Recruit Darnell Mooney
GettyFormer Chicago Bears wide receiver Darnell Mooney.
Florio didn’t stop there with his accusations against the Falcons, who will pay Cousins $180 million over a four-year deal with $100 million fully guaranteed.
He also accused the team of leveraging its new relationship with Cousins to get the quarterback to exercise his influence to attract former Chicago Bears wide receiver Darnell Mooney to Atlanta.
“Someone enlisted [Cousins] to recruit Darnell Mooney from the Bears,” Florio continued. “So you got tampering within tampering. You got multiple levels of tampering. [Cousins] just talked about it openly, like they just didn’t care. It was so blatant.”
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Falcons Committed ‘Most Blatant Case of Tampering’ for Kirk Cousins: Analyst