KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Chiefs officially appealed the NFL’s punishment for violating the Anti-Tampering Policy, according to multiple published reports.
The league’s punishment, which was announced on March 9, surrounds a ruling that the Chiefs had improper contact with wide receiver Jeremy Maclin, who was then under contract with the Philadelphia Eagles, during the open-negotiating period before the start of the NFL’s new calendar year in March 2015.
Teams are allowed to contact and enter into negotiations with the agents of pending free agents during that window, which was a three-day period last year, but direct contact with a player is prohibited.
The Chiefs ultimately signed Maclin to a five-year contract.
As a result of the NFL ruling that the Chiefs had improper contact with Maclin, the Chiefs lost a third-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft and a sixth-round pick in 2017.
The league also imposed monetary fines, docking the Chiefs as an organization in the amount of $250,000, while coach Andy Reid was fined $75,000 and general manager John Dorsey was fined $25,000.
Kansas City had five days to appeal the penalty in writing to commissioner Roger Goodell, which Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt indicated in a statement on March 9 the team would take that course of action.
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Herbie Teope is the lead Chiefs beat writer for ChiefsDigest.com and The Topeka Capital-Journal. Use the contact page to reach him or find him on Twitter: @HerbieTeope.
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