TEMPE, Ariz. — Minutes before the first round of the NFL draft began on Thursday night, the Cardinals and Eagles settled tampering charges against Arizona by swapping draft picks.
The teams traded third-round picks this year, with Arizona giving up the 66th overall pick in exchange for Philadelphia’s 94th overall pick, and the Cardinals received a fifth-round pick next year from the Eagles.
The teams released a joint statement detailing the tampering charges and the settlement, in which they explained that Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort had an impermissible phone conversation with Jonathan Gannon, who, at the time, was the Eagles’ defensive coordinator, days after the Eagles won the NFC Championship Game. Gannon was eventually hired as the Cardinals’ head coach on Feb. 14, two days after losing Super Bowl LVII, which was played at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
Arizona self-reported the violation to the NFL because the phone call took place during a no-contact period since Gannon was still coaching, which violated the NFL’s anti-tampering policy.
“I made a mistake,” Ossenfort said during a news conference Thursday night. “I own that. You know, it’s a situation that we were able to resolve. I’ve apologized to [Cardinals owner] Michael Bidwill, I’ve apologized to our staff, and I think the deal that we worked out it is what it is, and we’re just moving on from it and really don’t have a lot more to say on it.”
During his introductory news conference, Gannon said he was “fully engaged” in the Eagles’ playoff run. Bidwill said during that news conference that since the window to interview Gannon had closed before Ossenfort was hired, he didn’t want Arizona to be a disruption for potential candidates who were still coaching.
“What we didn’t want to do is be a distraction to some of the coaches who, as they were eliminated, we put in permission request forms,” Bidwill said in February. “We did that with other candidates, and we did that with Jonathan. We didn’t want to be a distraction to any one of the coaches, including Jonathan in the biggest game that there is.”
ESPN’s Adam Schefter contributed to this report.
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