Report: Raiders coach Jon Gruden accused of ‘blatant tampering’ after Richard Sherman comments

The NFL offseason is underway for all but two teams ahead of the Super Bowl on Sunday.

One team that could make some big moves during the offseason is the Las Vegas Raiders. Raiders head coach Jon Gruden may have made that much more difficult.

The Raiders head coach recently made some comments on Cris Collinsworth’s podcast that will not make NFL officials very happy. Gruden blatantly recruited Richard Sherman to the Raiders, and now he’s being accused of tampering.

“Yes I have,” Gruden said. “I’ve been fined, I’ve been punished very, very harshly. Richard Sherman, if you are a free agent, which there is a rumor you are, we are looking for an alpha presence in our secondary. Somebody that could play this Hawk 3-press technique with the read step. If you’re available and interested, maybe you and I can get together at some point off air.”

Gruden will almost certainly receive a call from the league about this conversation with Sherman in which he openly recruited him while the veteran cornerback is still a member of the San Francisco 49ers.

“This is blatant tampering,” said an anonymous general manager via ProFootballTalk.

It probably wasn’t a wise move, and Gruden could pay dearly for it.

Although Sherman has been rumored to be on his way out in San Francisco, the league won’t take kindly to the Raiders coach’s open recruitment.