the-commish

There is every reason to believe Goodell will re-issue the suspensions. There is also every reason to believe this will end up in court, where just saying something is true will not be sufficient. Courts require PROOF, something Goodell apparently lacks.

QBREES9

Does this mean anything for coach Payton.

Seer1

One less day until his suspension is lifted. Coaches don't have any organization/labor agreement to help them.

Tobias-Reiper

I don't think Goodell would be so crass as to just turn around and issue the very same suspensions again, because this time around, he's going to have to specifically define where was the intent to injure and prove who got paid for what; he cannot conveniently lump everything in one nice pay-for-performance/pay-to-injure" package.

The problem about defining intent to injure in the NFL, is that players already hit each other as hard as they can. There isn't a single play the past 3 years then Saints D was on, that you cannot see the very same play every Sunday, multiple times.

'Cause the simple man pays the thrills, the bills and the pills that kill

SaintsBro

I think Goodell is at the point where almost HAS to walk this thing back a bit, do a bit of a "do over" on it. The owners are looking at him from down the table like, Roger, come on man, why hasn't this thing gone away yet...the circus has gone on long enough. The actual memo could even be a tough line of posturing, for them to walk it back from that.


I don't want to get people falsely optimistic, but remember that Goodell does have a history of walking back suspensions and reducing them, while they are going on -- he gives them out and then cutting out the last few games in many cases, when they prove to be wildly unpopular or backfire in his face. (which just shows how incompetent he is, but don't get me started.) To reinstate the same exact suspensions as before, just keeps the whole thing going and going spinning around in the media, and the owners have to be getting testy about that. Now that the season is here they want to get back to the story lines that the league wants to dictate -- Manning, Tebow, how about that Andrew Luck kid, aren't we "diverse" for hiring a female referee, blah blah blah -- not the so-called "bounty" mess from March that will not die, and makes the league look more and more foolish every week.

lee909

This memo being leaked is great news for the players imo.
If they can prove that such a memo was sent,when the Commissar re-suspends the players under the "Actions detremental to the game" penalty they players will be able to prove that they are being suspended for the same thing under a different rule.

I still think the players may be suspended but the amount of games will be vastly reduced with some games under a suspended sentance/

sharke

Love for the Saints aside, Goodell/NFL have got to drop to this. For their sake now more than anything. Obviously, the scandal isn't going away (which for all parties involved it needs to). So why prolong it? Especially when the NFL ref dispute is blackening the eye of the league. Who wants to have 2 open scandals at the same time? Especially, when both could have easily been avoided. Smart thing would be to say, "we disagree with the judges' rulings and we still feel strongly about our position but right now the league will take no further action". Then MOVE ON. Drop it and the black eye for the game so it's forgotten by next week's news cycle. But alas Goodell turns everything into a pussing contest rather then doing the smart thing.

SaintsBro

I was thinking the same thing. Someone on the bubble of a roster like Hargrove, or Vilma at the relative twilight of his career (Smith is kind of getting up there too)....let them play out and then have a nominal suspension, of a couple of game checks, tacked on at the very end. Like they did with several guys in Starcaps. It's like an asterix on your name, indicating you did something wrong, but you still get to have a career. Or a guy like Fujita with no prior history, he should get a small suspension and some type of PROBATION, where on a second offense he is guaranteed to get the book thrown at him.

But see, Goodell wouldn't do something like that in the first place, because it makes too much sense. This is what ticks me off to no end.

Remember how Fujita said in that interview, that he had participated in P4P at almost every team he'd ever been on, all through his career? That's a lot of pay for performance! That's like a pattern or habit of behavior that the league wants him to stop doing. A small suspension/fine and a seriously loooooong period of probation, would actually make sense as a punishment, for a guy like him. To say to him, whatever you were doing, stop it, and OK we are watching you now. That's how you change his behavior in the future. But NOT when it comes to Goodell. He just went crazy with these heavy-handed punishments that MADE NO SENSE.

xan

I didn't read the decision, but in order to punish the players, didn't the appeals panel dictate that Goodell must present evidence other than what has been submitted in order to justify any suspension? If that's the case, the whole process has to start from scratch, he has to present the evidence to the players and allow diligence and a hearing. Then an appeal after the "ruling."

I don't think the League has thought through this. The ruling utterly blasted the NFL's process and made it impossible for them to simply re-issue punishment. None of us are experts, so the roller-coaster will still ride.

Calvin: "I wish I was a Tiger."
Hobbes: "Common lament."

Danno

The true conduct detrimental to the game was the excessive punishment.
Had Roger punished the exact same players 1/4th of what he did, the players would probably have agreed the punishment fit the crime, and the NFL message would still have been heard loud and clear.

Its similar to fining someone $10,000 for speeding. Yep, the "law" was broken but the punishment was way way too excessive.