Earlier this offseason, the Patriots filed tampering charges against the Jets concerning comments that Jets owner Woody Johnson made about being open to the return of cornerback Darrelle Revis if the Patriots didn’t pick up their option on Revis’s contract.
On Wednesday, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti said something similar about defensive tackle Haloti Ngata. The Ravens traded Ngata to the Lions last month and Bisciotti said that there was a chance Ngata could return to the team next year.
“I respect Haloti. I had a wonderful conversation with him after he was traded,” Bisciotti said, via the Baltimore Sun. “We are going to miss him, but I haven’t heard anything about him getting an extension from Detroit. As far as I know, he could be a free agent a year from now, and we may be watching the second coming of Haloti Ngata.”
It was pretty similar to what the league looked into regarding Johnson, but it doesn’t look like there will be a cause for further investigation. The Lions released a statement Thursday saying that they weren’t concerned with what the Ravens owner said about a member of their roster.
“The Ravens have reached out to us concerning the comments made yesterday by Steve Bisciotti regarding Haloti Ngata,” the statement reads. “We appreciate both the Ravens’ professionalism and the context in which Mr. Bisciotti’s statements were made. We consider the matter to be a non-issue.”
If the Ravens and Lions shared the contentious relationship that the Patriots and Jets have had for the recent past, they may have had a more overheated response to Bisciotti’s comments. Since they don’t, the NFL can concern themselves with the Revis matter, Greg Hardy’s potential discipline, Deflategate and any other pending investigations still on their plate.