Did Bill Belichick Tamper With Zach Ertz in Front of a Reporter?

Bill Belichick loves his tight ends. Whether it's Rob Gronkowski, Ben Watson, Daniel Graham or yes, even Aaron Hernandez, the New England Patriots head coach always makes tight ends a big part of his offense. That should make it no surprise that he apparently wanted Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz.

On Monday, 6 ABC Philadelphia reporter Jamie Apody was present as Belichick and Ertz had a conversation. According to the reporter, Belichick claimed, "I'm still going to get you some day" then lamented how much Eagles general manager Howie Roseman wants in a trade.

While this is certainly a funny scene and obviously light-hearted, is it also tampering? I mean, the head coach/GM of a team is telling another team's player he wants him and discussing efforts to trade for him. Frankly I think tampering rules are stupid, but I'm genuinely curious if this fits the definition. More than likely not, since it seemed to clearly just be friendly banter.

What's most entertaining about all this is Belichick's obsession with tight ends. This offseason he splashed $87.5 million ($56.5 million guaranteed) on Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry. That's a year after drafting both Dalton Keene and Devin Asiasi in the third round. After all that he's still thinking about Zach Ertz.

Given how awful the Patriots' receiving corps looks on paper, maybe Bill needs to talk to someone about his tight end fixation. The modern NFL may not be able to accommodate five tight end sets.