NEW ORLEANS, March 22 (UPI) -- The Detroit Lions have appealed a league fine levied against them for violating the NFL's anti-tampering policy, Commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday.
Goodell, speaking in New Orleans after wrapping up the league's annual owners meetings, said five teams had been investigated for violating anti-tampering rules in the past year.
He let slip that Detroit had appealed its loss of a seventh-round pick in next month's NFL Draft.
"I hope, when I get back to my office, I can get some attention to (the Lions' case), but I've been out of the office a little bit recently," he told the Detroit Free Press.
The Lions have refused to talk about the tampering penalty, in which defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham was cited for having "impermissible contact" last year with Chiefs safety Jarrad Page.
Page's agent has since said neither he nor his client ever talked to anyone from the Lions in 2010, the Free Press reported.
