There was a somewhat bizarre item on ESPN.com this morning, which gave credence to a recent non-ESPN report suggesting that the NFL already has determined that the Raiders violated league rules in connection with an accusation by owner Al Davis that the Patriots tampered with receiver Randy Moss in 2007.  The initial non-ESPN report indicated that the league already has determined that the claim of tampering made by Davis was and is false.

Since then, however, the ESPN.com story has been revised to reflect what we understand (and what we reported) to be the true state of affairs.  Thus, the current report from Chris Mortensen (who also was the subject of verbal stink bombs from Davis last week) is that the league has advised the Raiders that, if they have evidence of tampering, they should produce it.

And Mort was clear in his refutation of the report from Tuesday that we exposed as premature at best, downright false at worst:  “An NFL source firmly denied to ESPN that the Raiders were threatened with sanctions in the letter.”  (Indeed, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello has said as to the report of correspondence threatening sanctions against the team, “No such letter was sent.”)

The new version of the ESPN.com item concludes with this Editor’s note:  “In an Oct. 9 story on ESPN television and ESPN.com, information that indicated ESPN had confirmed facts regarding possible sanctions in a letter from the NFL to the Oakland Raiders was incorrectly characterized due to internal editing.  The report should have indicated that ESPN confirmed the existence of a letter asking the Raiders to provide evidence of tampering.”

Wow.  It’s a good thing that the folks who posted on Tuesday the initial report of certain sanctions for the Raiders don’t deal in reckless rumor or fiction.  And we sure hope they didn’t trumpet to the world that the erroneous ESPN.com story affirms their mission and commitment.