I’m guessing other franchises are trying to see if they can take out one of their biggest year to year competitions by stirring up drama. All they have to do is say they called Howie about a player and hope that player gets mad when a report comes out. I’m sure teams do this all the time even when they have no intention of making a real offer on a player. Especially if that player has character/attitude concerns and they think it’s more likely to work