Jonathan Gannon Calls Anti-Tampering Violation “A Mistake We Made”

Speaking to the media for the first time since the NFL Draft, Arizona Cardinals Head Coach Jonathan Gannon called the illicit contact between him and the Arizona Cardinals a mistake.

Gannon, who was the defensive coordinator for the Eagles during the 2022-23 season, was hired to be the Cardinals’ head coach shortly after the Eagles lost in Super Bowl LVII. Before the 2023 NFL Draft, Arizona self-reported contact between the Cardinals and Gannon in the days following the Eagles’ victory in the NFC Championship Game, which violated the NFL’s anti-tampering policies.

“It was a mistake that we made,” Gannon said on Tuesday, “the league kind of rectified it, and we moved on.”

Gannon explained that in the days following the NFC Championship game, he was contacted by incoming General Manager Monti Ossenfort. The call was mostly congratulatory and focused on advice on how to handle a Super Bowl appearance, but Gannon said that the Cardinals’ coaching search did come up.

“[Ossenfort] said, ‘Look, we’re in the middle of a coaching search, don’t know how the timing of this is all going to shake out, but basically would you be interested in interviewing if the timing gets pushed back to after the Super Bowl?'” Gannon recalled. “I said yeah, I would be, but I didn’t hear about it until after the game that we played when [Eagles General Manager] Howie [Roseman] came up to me and talked to me about [it].”

In order to preserve game integrity and ensure coaches and players are committed to their current teams, the NFL imposes rules about when players and coaches can be contacted by teams seeking to establish new contracts with them. For coaches, teams may not contact potential coaching candidates who are working for other teams until after the team has played its last game of the season, including the postseason.

The violation was self-reported by the Cardinals and the Eagles and Cardinals swapped third round picks during the 2023 NFL Draft, with the Eagles getting the 66th overall pick and the Cardinals getting the 94th overall pick. The Eagles also sent the Cardinals a 5th Round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. The Eagles would use the 66th overall pick to get DB Sydney Brown from Illinois.

Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman, speaking on the 94 WIP Morning Show with Joe DeCamara and John Ritchie, confirmed that the resolution of the violation was not something he directly handled.

“[The anti-tampering violation] was handled at the ownership level and the league level,” Roseman said. “I can only control what we can, which is adding as many good players and as many good people as we can on this team.”

DeCamara and Ritchie challenged Roseman on reports that he was mad about what happened but wouldn’t say it publicly, equating it to being angry about the condition of the field at Super Bowl LVII but taking the high road. Roseman denied being angry with Gannon but acknowledged that the Super Bowl still drives him insane.

“At the end of the day, I will never, no matter how long I live — and hopefully it’s a long time — I will never get over that Super Bowl game,” Roseman declared, “but it will continue to drive me to make sure we get another championship.”