Though the San Francisco 49ers have been tactful in their response to the ruling by the league office that they tampered with Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs, they don’t agree with the outcome.

“The 49ers organization respects Commissioner Goodell’s ruling today, however we do disagree with it,” said 49ers General Manager Scot McCloughan.  “This was not a malicious act; we believe that our intent was within the NFL guidelines.  Going forward, we will take the necessary steps to ensure we are in compliance with the NFL’s interpretation.”

Per Kevin Lynch of the San Francisco Chronicle, the team is “mystified” by the finding.  Citing two unnamed sources, Lynch reports that the Niners never actually made contact with Drew Rosenhaus, the agent who represents Briggs, regarding Briggs.

Lynch says that the proof of tampering consisted of a phone record showing phone communications between the Niners and Rosenhaus.  That’s it.  A source with knowledge of the situation tells us that there were only two short calls to Rosenhaus during the relevant time period.

Rosenhaus represents nearly 80 NFL players, and he has several clients who play for the 49ers, including running back Frank Gore.  It would have been permissible for the 49ers to talk to Rosenhaus about any of them, at any time.  Likewise, the Niners were allowed to speak with Rosenhaus about any of his clients who were looking for work at the time.

So what did they talk about?   Our source says that the 49ers denied at the hearing that there was any conversation with Rosenhaus about Briggs.  And multiple sources tell us that Rosenhaus didn’t testify at the hearing.  So if Rosenhaus didn’t testify and if the Niners denied that there were discussions with Rosenhaus about Briggs, how could the Niners get nailed?

The other aspect of this one that strikes us as odd is that the Bears don’t dispute that they were talking to the Niners about a trade for Briggs.  We hear that the Bears wanted a first-round pick; surely, the Bears didn’t think that the 49ers would give up a first-rounder without an extension of Briggs’ contract. 

And an extension would only have happened if — duh — the Niners had reached an agreement with Rosenhaus about the terms of the new deal.

In the end, the trade talks died because Briggs couldn’t sign an extension because he signed his one-year franchise tender after July 15.  Amazingly, neither the Bears nor the Niners knew this. 

So the 49ers apparently were busted for discussions that weren’t proven on a contract extension that couldn’t happen on a trade that wouldn’t have gone through absent a new contract between the Niners and Briggs.

If this is tampering (and we’re not suggesting that it isn’t), then it’s suddenly become far easier to prove this violation of the rules.  And every team that had one of its own players leave via free agency in the first 72 hours after the market opened should file charges against the team that signed said player.  If there’s a phone record showing that the player’s new team spoke with the player’s agent within a week or two prior to February 29, the Niners won’t be the only team that doesn’t have a fifth round pick.

Heck, in the end, there might not even be a fifth round.