The NFL’s tampering rules don’t prohibit any and all discussions between a player for one team and a coach or member of management from another team.  Instead, the rule only prohibits the two sides from discussing the possibility of the player jumping from his current team to the team for which the other party to the discussion works.

So they can talk about anything under the sun . . . except the player playing for the other guy’s team.  (And, absent a wiretap or an admission, this makes it impossible to prove that tampering occurred.)

Former Packers quarterback Brett Favre talks from time to time with former Packers quarterbacks coach Darrell Bevell, who currently serves as the offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings.

And there is talk of conversations between Bevell and Favre regarding the possibility of Favre playing for the Vikings.  We presently don’t know whether the discussions occurred recently, or whether they occurred earlier in the offseason.  (We also don’t know conclusively whether they occurred at all.) 

If accurate, Bevell’s conduct constitutes a violation of the tampering rules, even if he didn’t realize it and even if he was acting without the knowledge or approval of coach Brad Childress.

Again, we’re not saying that talks occurred.  But there are rumors that they in fact did.

Regardless, a reunion between Bevell and Favre might not be a good idea.  In Bevell’s final year as Favre’s position coach, Favre posted the worst passer rating of his career, only two-tenths of a point north of the Kordoza Line.