They only play each other once every four years. In the interim, the Chiefs and Lions will be doing battle before the league office.
Alex Marvez and Adam Caplan of FOXSports.com report that the Chiefs have filed tampering charges against the Lions. Though the specific basis for the complaint isn’t know, the FOX article points to comments from former Chiefs coach and defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham, who now serves as defensive coordinator of the Lions.
“[Kansas City] keeps wanting to dump their players. I would like to be there to catch a lot of them because I know a couple of those guys,” Cunningham said earlier this year.
It’s possible that the charges involve former Chiefs safety Jarrad Page, who was embroiled in a contentious holdout with the team earlier this year. The Lions reportedly were interested in Page.
Tampering charges rarely stick, in large part because the league prefers (in our opinion) not to declare to the world that its franchises are trying to cheat each other. Only in the most obvious and blatant circumstances will the league conclude that tampering occurred.
The charges also may have been filed as a defensive move by the Chiefs, to get the Lions to refrain from trying to make a play for Chiefs players in the future.