Ravens owner likely tampered with Haloti Ngata, per their Twitter account

Do the Baltimore Ravens still employ the same social-media manager they had last year?

You know, the one who authorized (or engineered) a disastrous live tweeting of the awful pre-Memorial Day Ray Rice press conference, including one fateful tweet about Janay Rice "deeply regretting" her role in the domestic abuse incident. (As in, the tweet that had a shockingly long shelf life before it was eventually deleted.)

Well, whomever mans Ravens Twitter now just likely stepped afoul again on Wednesday. Team owner Steve Bisciotti was on a conference call with Ravens season-ticket holders, explaining the team's moves (and non-moves) to make them feel better about spending their money on his team. This sort of thing happens with many NFL teams, and other professional sports outfits. Typical schlock.

And the thing is, Bisciotti can say whatever he wants on that call. It's not considered public domain, and NFL rules really don't apply. He — in theory — could promise them that Ray Lewis will hide in the bushes at Ben Roethlisberger's estate and take his knees out when Big Ben goes to get the morning paper, and there likely wouldn't be much recourse. (OK, maybe not the best example.)

So when Bisciotti told those season-ticket holders that the Ravens hoped to re-sign Haloti Ngata, whom they just traded to the Detroit Lions, when he becomes a free agent in 2016, there technically wasn't much wrong with the statement.

“I respect Haloti," Bisciottti said, via the Baltimore Sun. "I had a wonderful conversation with him after he was traded. We are going to miss him, but I haven’t heard anything about him getting an extension from Detroit. As far as I know, he could be a free agent a year from now, and we may be watching the second coming of Haloti Ngata [in Baltimore].

“Who knows? I never give up hope that we couldn’t get him back. I talked to [former Ravens linebacker Jarrett Johnson] about that when he left for San Diego. Players like that are always welcome back. There were no hard feelings on either side. Haloti is a wonderful guy. I wish him the best, and maybe we’ll see him again.”

The problem likely came when that pesky Ravens Twitter account passed on that statement.

That's grounds for tampering, per NFL rules. They state:

"No club, nor any person employed by or otherwise affiliated with a club, is permitted to tamper with a player who is under contract to or whose exclusive negotiating rights are held by another club."

Furthermore:

"Any public or private statement of interest, qualified or unqualified, in another club’s player to that player’s agent or representative, or to a member of the news media, is a violation of this Anti-Tampering Policy. (Example of a prohibited comment: “He’s an excellent player, and we’d very much like to have him if he were available, but another club holds his rights.”) All clubs should be aware that improper disclosure of confidential trade discussions with another club may be a violation of this section on prohibited public statements."  

The rules state that teams are not allowed to make these statements in public or private, but broadcasting what Bisciotti said on Twitter almost assures a league investigation. (But Ted Wells is a busy man these days, so the league might call on someone else, should the Lions cry foul.)

Tampering is all the rage these days in the league. It's a fairly stupid rules, and most of the potential "violations" are moderately benign. The Hatfield New England Patriots and McCoy New York Jets are currently sparring over two separate tampering charges.

But the Lions actually refused to press charges with the league against the Miami Dolphins for agreeing to terms with Ndamukong Suh when the Dolphins clearly jumped the gun during the pre-free agency window. Is it possible that the Lions are fed up with other teams jumping the gun on their defensive linemen? Yes, but it likely would require them to jump to action on this for the Ravens to be in trouble.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm