FOXSports.com's Alex Marvez and Adam Caplan are reporting that the Kansas City Chiefs have filed a tampering charge against the Detroit Lions. It is unclear what the details of the charge are or what specific incident prompted the grievance. Whatever the case, the Lions could lose at least one draft pick and/or be fined if found guilty of the Chiefs' allegation(s), which could certainly throw a bit of a wrench into the rebuilding process next offseason.
According to the report, Lions defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham is believed to be mentioned in the Chiefs' grievance. Cunningham was with Kansas City before taking a job with the Lions and has been known to talk openly about the Chiefs and their players (on a general basis; he has never specifically named anybody). Back in February, for example, this comment from Cunningham created a bit of controversy:
"[The Chiefs] keep wanting to dump players," defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham said late last season. "I would like to be there to catch a lot of them, because I know a couple of those guys."
Pro Football Talk called the comments a "textbook violation of tampering rules" but admitted that because no specific players were named, nothing would likely be done by the NFL. As Tom Kowalski reported a day later, that was exactly the case, as the comments hadn't "registered at a league level" because no specific players were named.
It's unclear if Cunningham's comments are what prompted this charge or if it was something else. One theory is that the charge has to do with safety Jarrad Page, who the Lions were reportedly interested in this past offseason before Kansas City traded him to New England. I tend to think it has to be something we don't know about, because I fail to see why the Chiefs would waste their time complaining about comments that the NFL already characterized as not being tampering. I guess we shall see, though.