Where's my "Free Vilma" t-shirt...

This is not right at all.

Agreed. Losing any of these players HURTS! Worst case was losing a LOT of defensive players, which did not happen, so we lucked out.

All of us were hoping Will Smith would turn it around this season and Vilma wouldn't be injured. Luckily the front office has made plans to fix the problem.

I am borderline happy about only Vilma and Smith.
Goodell could have really pushed hard and dropped the whole turd - really stank up the place.
We kind of knew Vilma would get hung in the middle, but I expect 1/2 the defense to be gone and/or fined.
We know how to play without Smith for 4 games, and we learned how to play without Vilma.
If Lofton does as well as Dunbar did, we should be in pretty good shape.
We are in a much better position than I ever expected.
So Let's Geaux!

Where's the Evidence

It's starting to really annoy me how the NFL constantly uses scapegoats to get their point across. And while I'm extremely happy more players weren't suspended, as I thought this entire bounty issue was bull****... I find it extremely unfair that Vilma is being used as an example; and it just goes to show the common theme with this whole bounty investigation and how the Saints franchise is being used.

A few football points: If Brees' contract isn't tied up quickly with the sudden stream of cap space we've acquired from these suspensions, then we all have a big reason to worry... cause something doesn't make sense.

I'd highly optimistic about the D-line going into the start of the year. I think Will Smith is and has been a very consistent player for us, but I'm highly excited about the young guys(Junior Galette, Greg Romeus specifically) as I think this gives them an opportunity to showcase their talent. I'm really high on Brodrick Bunkley.

Our secondary as it looks, is pretty much intact. A lot of pundits were saying that we needed to draft players to fill the roles of the suspended players during the draft; turns out they were wrong and our defense looks pretty much together.

So does this mean I need a Free Vilma shirt to go along with my Free Coach Payton shirt?

But honestly this just shows how messed up this whole situation is. Out of all the pages Goodell had about our bounty program he only suspends 4 players and only one really takes the fall.

Could've been much worse, I sad for Vilma and Smith, but I'm glad it wasn't worse.

So, the Saints free up $ 5.6M in cap space?

Vilma's whole base salary $5.4M and 1/4th of Smith's base salary 206K, it would've been much better if they hadn't restructured Smith's contract because his entire bonuses will still count towards the cap ($6.5M).

Once Vilma's name was said negatively on the view (or any nonsports centered show) his days were numbered. It's bad P/R to people who only know football for the superbowl and nothing else. Vilma's name came up in a scandal that has exposed said audience to the realities of contact sports thus jeopardizing potential revenue. Now, they see that the NFL has punished said evil doers and can feel guilt free for watching professional football irregularly.