I can't find a link to this, but I feel this is how it will play out
 

Found this while bored waiting on Frozen Planet to come on Discovery

Adam Shefter stated on ESPN that when Payton and Benson met with the league last Monday that league sources say Payton made a pretty compelling argument that he knew nothing of the bounty scandal on the defensive side of the ball.

Remember that when Gregg Williams got to the Saints, Payton handed total control of the defense to him. Shefter seems to think that the NFL is inclined to believe Payton.

They already believe Benson had no idea what was going on. It is speculated by Shefter and Glazer that Payton, Loomis, and the team will be fined, and that the team will lose a couple of draft picks.

It is the rest of the media, (insert Florio, King here; my comment), that seems to want the Saints to be slammed. This never came from the league that the Saints would be slammed.

I believe that the team already knows what the punishment will be, it is not that severe, it will be announced this week, and it will be business as usual in Saints land.

Just my gut feeling, but, after studying all of this, I believe Drew will be signed within the next couple of weeks after the Manning signing, the free agent LB signings, and the Bountygate penalty anouncement. I could be wrong, but I think the media will be ****** when it finds out that the punishment will be fines and draft picks for the Saints, but no suspensions.

There just seems to be not enough evidence, (cart-offs, ejections, unusually high personal fouls, etc) over the past three years to show that players were intentionally targeted to be injured and that suspensions are warranted. The league is not stupid enough to get into a court battle over this. The Saints have made it known about burden of proof.

I don't see Vilma getting out of a suspension, not after it was proven fact that he was offering 10k for hits...

That's why I think we're looking at ILBs...

Vilma says he didn't say/do it, so unless there is a tape. . .

Maybe the Saints will release him as a sacrificial lamb; thus ending his career. No team will sign him knowing that he has a significant suspension pending.

Doesn't matter; Goodell will find a way to give the harshest penalties he can. That's why I think it's taking so long, he's figuring out what he can get away with

Sensationalism at its best, betting on who makes the first big play is a far cry from putting together a pot to see who can maim or injure someone. I believe we should be punished for only what we did which was wager on big plays, Goddell hopefully can tell the difference. Peter King is a hater, his reports are no longer unbias when it comes to the Saints you can hear it in his inferences when he talks about how you really hurt a team. Florio's dum ass is trying to condemn us, but he has a lifesize poster of the very game in question hanging on his wall, and a Drew Brees bobblehead in the backdrop of his office.

I used to like Peter King, and defended him on this site. I'm starting to not like him so much any more.

I ain't seen nuttin' and I ain't gonna rat out my gang.(Gregg Williams did it):cool:

snitches get stitches...

Gregg Williams, the Rat

I don't know how big of a role the owners' meeting will play in all of this.

Does Goodell in practice have to approve his decision with the owners?

Or is it more of an pre-announcement to the owners before the media and the rest of the world finds out?

I still do not see this coming down that hard on players.... Ok so given they are saying what... between 22 and 27 players knew or participated. This is why I keep saying this is not only a "Saints problem".

So they start slamming players, then would have to slam them all... not only the ones on the present Saints roster... Anyone that was on our roster from 2009-2011 that has left.

That would mean:
Scott Fujita
Tracy Porter
Usama Young
Remi Ayodele
DeMario Pressley
Marvin Mitchell

Along with Greg Williams

Would all get slammed with their present teams.

I'll tell you one thing in particular that I have been thinking about lately. The thing about the email sent to Payton that referenced the bounties. And Payton apparently said that he never read the email. Now to some people, that seems unbelievable, far-fetched, impossible....but I KNOW plenty of PEOPLE around Sean Payton's age, my older brother and his friends for example, who simply don't do email. For a lot of people in their late 40s and 50s, email is simply not part of their thing. They are phone and face-to-face kind of people.

My point is that I don't automatically believe everything Sean Payton says; I'm looking at it pretty skeptically, but if you look at him straight up, he is a relatively straight shooting guy who speaks carefully and says what he means. And his explanation that he never read or saw the email, well if he is one of those people who doesn't really "do" email, then it certainly seems plausible enough to me that he might not have seen it. Especially if it was sent to a Saints email account that he might never check or use. But it might seem really far-fetched to people like these media writers, folks who use email all the time, every day, but there are plenty of people out there, especially famous or very busy people, who simply don't use email to communicate....if it sounded totally bogus I would be the first one to say it, but that part of the story (the email he never read) is not as far-fetched as some people might think.