Goodell Rules: Vikings Didn’t Tamper

Der Kommissar Roger Goodell has handed down his verdict on the tampering charges filed against the Minnesota Vikings by the Green Bay Packers–and that verdict is not guilty.  The Vikings, whom the Packers claimed encouraged Brett Favre to return, sparking this whole fugly mess of a situation that we all can’t escape, admitted that coaches Darrell Bevell and Brad Childress spoke to Favre, but claimed they were ‘run-of-the-mill, innocent exchanges.’

So, now our question is–are the Packers, who supposedly had some phone records proving the contact(despite never issuing a team cell phone to Brett Favre), guilty of tampering (to obtain those phone records) and/or some other rule that probably isn’t but should be in place to prevent teams from launching distracting tampering investigations against division opponents?

Otherwise, add it to the list of tactics we can expect Jerry Jones to employ in 2009 to try to finally prove that Jimmy Johnson wasn’t the only reason he won some Super Bowls in the 1990’s.