John Harbaugh didn’t hide from the question on Monday: yes, he reached out to Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk in an effort to open trade talks for defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons.
And he made clear he has no interest in worrying about any unwritten rule that might say he crossed a line by going around Titans G.M. Mike Borgonzi.
“ I did, I did,” Harbaugh said regarding whether he called Strunk. “I left a message. . . .
Because you turn over every stone. You know, gonna try everything.
I mean, I just, I’ll put it out there, man, we’re open for any call. Anybody wants to call us or call anybody.
Call.”
Harbaugh even leaned into the moment when the conversation turned to songs that carry the “call me” message, from Blondie’s “Call Me” to “Call Me Maybe.”
“Let’s put that out there,” Harbaugh said. “Put that out there.
It was kind of, like, fun to see the outpouring of interest in that. I enjoyed it.
We’re not like - we’re not part of any secret society oath that says you can only talk to somebody. We’re not in that.
We didn’t get memoed on that. We’re not in that agreement.
So like I said, anybody can call us. We won’t be adhering to that particular agreement.”
The Giants’ approach suggests they were willing to get creative when talks with Borgonzi weren’t producing much. Calls between teams can happen at a lot of levels, and there’s no rule that says every conversation has to start and end with general managers.
In this case, the Giants apparently took a different route because they weren’t getting anywhere with Borgonzi. As it stands, they also didn’t hear from the Titans about whether they would match or top the offer the Bears made for Simmons. That would seem like the obvious next step before a deal gets finalized, unless Chicago had set a hard, fast deadline that left no room for Tennessee to shop for a better return.
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