The Packers reportedly think some of the teams interested in trading for Aaron Rodgers have violated league rules by letting Rodgers know they’re interested.
According to Rob Demovsky of ESPN, the Packers are upset that other teams, including the 49ers and Broncos, may have contacted Rodgers to see if he is interested in playing for them.
However, the report says the Packers have not filed a tampering complaint with the NFL because tampering is incredibly hard to prove.
Under NFL rules, a player under contract to a team cannot be contacted by representatives of any other team, unless the player’s current team gives other teams permission. So if the Packers decide to trade Rodgers, they could give other teams permission to talk with him about a trade. But right now, the Packers say they will not trade Rodgers and have not given any team permission to contact him.
Those rules are sometimes enforced. For instance, after the Chiefs signed wide receiver Jeremy Maclin in 2015, they were docked a 2016 third-round pick and a 2017 sixth-round pick because they contacted Maclin while he was still under contract with the Eagles. But generally speaking, the enforcement of tampering in the NFL is arbitrary, and the Packers would need smoking-gun evidence to get the NFL to do anything. If the 49ers or Broncos had some back-door communications with Rodgers or his agent, there’s probably not much the Packers can do about it.