In 2007, the NFL Players Association restricted the ability of player agents to have communication of any kind with underclass college players who have yet to be cleared to enter the NFL draft.

Recognizing that the new rule wasn’t as clear as it could have been about when agents could talk to underclassmen, the NFLPA has issued only letters of reprimand to nine agents who had premature contact with non-seniors.

Neil Cornrich, Major Adams, Craig Domann, Richard Katz, Thomas Kleine, Joe Linta, Lyle Mansikoff, and Howard Shatsky received the letters, according to Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal.

Future violators won’t be so lucky.  “The [Committee on Agent Regulation and Discipline] is making it clear to the agent community that everyone should now know the timetable for talking to juniors and next year there will be no excuses,” NFLPA General Counsel Richard Berthelsen told Mullen.

The better approach would be to just get rid of the rule.  It apparently was a reaction to the Reggie Bush fiasco at USC, even though the problems in that case were caused not by football agents, but by marketing agents who are beyond the reach of the NFLPA.

As we’ve heard from several agents, the rule puts honorable agents (there are any?) at a disadvantage because they’ll comply with the rule while the less-than-reputable agents will ignore the rule.  It also deprives the underclassmen of having a full and fair opportunity to gather information about a fairly important decision in their professional careers.