Cowboys Won't Face Tampering Charges In Peterson Matter

A few waves were made in the National Football League landscape a couple of weeks ago when it was reported that Minnesota Vikings' running back Adrian Peterson told Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones that he would "love to play for the Cowboys." Outside of the obvious implications of the NFL's best running back changing uniforms, one other question was raised.

That question being "Why was Jerry Jones talking to Adrian Peterson on the phone in the first place?

"The NFL's rules on player tampering lay out specific steps to take if a team is contacted by a player who is under contract with another team: "... the contacted club must immediately report such contact to the owner or operating head of the club which holds the player's rights." Failure to do so can result in "severe" penalties from the commissioner's office.

Jones, who confirmed that Peterson told him he wanted to play for the Cowboys, said he has not talked with Peterson since the call and that he didn't think the discussion should be considered tampering. This week, he said he did not contact the Vikings about the conversation.

Well, as it turns out, Peterson was talking to a friend of his that was in Jones' suite at Cowboys Stadium, who in turn handed the phone to Jones. It wasn't Peterson's intention to talk to Jones at all.

According to Ben Goessling of ESPN, the Vikings have told the league that they would not be filing any sort of tampering charges against Jones for the incident. As neither Jones nor Peterson initiated the conversation between the two of them, there really wasn't any reason to believe that there was any ill intent on the part of either party.

So, that should pretty much be the end of that story. No harm, no foul on behalf of either party in the incident.