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The New Orleans Saints' odds of digging out of an 0-4 hole were deep but the odds of trying to accomplish the task with linebacker Jonathan Vilma and defensive end Will Smith available the remainder of the season are significantly increasing.

While former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue has established the appeals hearing date as Nov. 20 for those players suspended by Roger Goodell in the Saints' alleged bounty program, that hearing is only the first of many procedural dates in a due process forum that is now expected to go beyond the NFL's regular season, according to sources familiar with the pre-hearing talks.

New Orleans Saints' bounty appeals likely to go past 2012 -- sources - ESPN

"A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."