With four days to go until the explosion of 2008 free agency and plenty of scouts and agents in Indianapolis for the Scouting Combine, plenty of contract talks that shouldn’t be happening are happening.

The result?  Rumors are flying that verbal deals — deals that clearly violate the tampering rules — already are in place.

Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com, citing an unnamed source, reports that the 49ers already are working on a contract for defensive end Justin Smith.  Last week, it was reported that the 49ers currently face tampering allegations regarding Bears linebacker Lance Briggs.

The question though is whether the ultimate source for rumors of Smith-to-San Fran is his agent, Jim Steiner, and whether Steiner is simply puffing in the hopes of driving up interest in his client. 

That’s one of the realities of tampering.  It’s so widespread that some agents will claim that their clients have essentially illegal deals in place, all in the hopes of inducing better deals via tampering.