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According to sources, the NFL showed portions of the ledger during meetings with some of those who have been investigated in the scandal.

"The players clearly knew what was going each week with the payments," a source told Yahoo! Sports. In fact, multiple sources admitted that Saints defensive players would regularly encourage teammates to put money earned from the bounty system back into the pool. It's unclear if that was to increase the potential winnings or eventually use the money for some other purpose.

Regardless of whether the money was paid out or not, the mere implication of a cash payment for such plays is considered a violation of league rules.
NFL Players Association spokesman George Atallah said via text message that the league "made mention" of the ledger in a meeting with the union in April, but that the NFLPA had not seen the ledger yet.

As a result, Atallah called into question the use of the ledger as "evidence."

"I guess it either qualifies as evidence, which means fair due process was violated because [the] players didn't get to see it before they were punished or it is not hard evidence because they didn't get to see it and cross examine the validity of that piece of evidence," Atallah wrote.

This news comes in the aftermath of a declaration Friday by filmmaker Sean Pamphilon that he was encouraged by former New Orleans linebacker Scott Fujita to release an audio recording of former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, first obtained by Yahoo! Sports, in which Williams exhorts players to hurt members of the San Francisco 49ers in a playoff game last season.

Implicit within Pamphilon's 10,000-word description of the circumstances is that players such as Fujita and New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees and the NFL Players Association were attempting to push more of the blame for the bounty scandal onto Williams and the coaching staff.
Fujita, who did not immediately return a text seeking comment, is one of four players who has been suspended for his participation in the bounty scandal.

The ledger could prove to be extremely damning to the players' cause. Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma has filed a defamation lawsuit against NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in federal court in Louisiana, claiming he never paid nor received money for bounties.
Vilma's claim may ultimately be a matter of semantics.

Sources: New Orleans Saints kept a 'ledger' detailing weekly earnings in bounty scandal - Yahoo! Sports

SmashMouth

And it continues ...

mikesaintfan

"sources claim"= "BS"

Halo

OKAY so where is the "ledger?"

Why, if there is SO MUCH EVIDENCE against the Saints, then why does Roger Goodell need to FILE FOR AN EXTENSION OF TIME TO ANSWER HIS CASE?

WHY?

I WANT TO KNOW. WHERE IS THIS AIR TIGHT CASE GOODELL TALKED ABOUT?

SO AIRTIGHT, IN-FACT, THAT HE EXPOUNDED ON IT EARLIER IN THE MEDIA.
BUT WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN THEN ROGER GOODELL NEEDS "AN EXTENSION"

THIS EVIDENCE SHOULD BE EASY TO PRESENT, IN HARD COLD EVIDENCE FOR EVERYONE TO SEE!

Not speculation from "sources" on a YAHOO blog.
According to Goodell, the light should be BLAZING AFIRE SO BRIGHT EVEN PEOPLE ON THE MOON SHOULD SEE IT! right??

Why not say that off the cuff. Why title your article slanted to defame the Saints defense?





AND IT STILL DOESN'T MAKE IT RIGHT FOR GOODELL TO GO OUT IN PUBLIC WITHOUT PRESENTING EVIDENCE AND TRASHING THE NAME OF VILMA!

Even if everything is TRUE, no one who is the head of ANY organisation has the right to go out and re-injure an employee or contractor for a crime they are about to be punished for.

GOODELL USED VILMA TO GRANDSTAND AND WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH IT THIS TIME!!

gandhi1007

Halo......we all know why Goodell asked for an extension. So that he could have enough time to "manufacture" some kind of evidence. Anyone in their right mind knows that they would have ponied up with it by now with pressure from the NFLPA & the lawsuits. But.......after months of speculation & posturing for the media.......Goodell has come up with nothing that could even remotely be held up in a court of law. The best they have is an audio of Gregg Williams using metaphors & talking of testing an opposing players injury.

Beastmode

They would have to bring their source in on a private jet, at night, with a disguise and even that might not be enough to protect them. Who in their right mind would agree to that. Eventually you would be revealed and your life would never be the same.

halloween 65

I will be glad when it's all over. Hopefully Goddell gets exposed for the crap that he is.

Halo

oH, YOU MEAN THE ONE WITH - hit 'em low and hit 'em hard!

I remember my coach at Joe Brown Park in New Orleans told me to do the same thing - "hit 'em low and hit 'em hard!"

LMAO

foreverfan

Goodell's Public Flogging will be Televised.

RockyMountainSaint

I don't have the words..............

Ledger entries for Bills game raise new questions about alleged Saints bounty program | ProFootballTalk

By all appearances, the NFL finally has released evidence of the bounty program in New Orleans. Not directly, of course, but by leaking it to Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports.

That said, the evidence given to Cole raises more questions than it answers.

Cole explains that the ledger maintained by the Saints identifies three separate $1,000 payments for supposed “cart-offs” during a game against the Buffalo Bills. But Cole doesn’t mention the players from the Bills who were injured.

Presumably, they were players from the Bills’ offense, right?

That’s not the case.

The Associated Press reported that four Bills were injured in the game. Three of them were members of the Buffalo defense: cornerback Leodis McKelvin, safety Donte Whitner, and safety Bryan Scott. On offense, left tackle Demetress (then Demetrius) Bell suffered a knee injury.

McKelvin suffered a broken leg, and he was placed on injured reserve. (It’s not entirely clear based on Cole’s report whether the notation in the ledger reflecting the placement of a player on injured reserve comes from the Buffalo game.)

So how were three $1,000 awards made for cart-offs when only one offensive player from the Bills was injured?

There are several explanations. The most likely is that the ledger isn’t accurate, and thus not entirely reliable. The least likely is that the ledger is fabricated, and thus completely unreliable.

But what if the ledger is evidence that the bounty program crossed the lines of offense and defense, paying offensive players who inflicted injury on opposing defensive players? If there truly was a bounty program, it’s possible that the defense maintained the bounty program, and that the defense would decide to periodically kick some cash to offensive players who exhibited the mindset that the defense was cultivating.

The NFL never has claimed that offensive players were paid. But if the ledger is accurate, it’s possible that’s the only explanation.

And if that’s the case, Drew Brees will most definitely need an explanation.

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