SmashMouth

And Peter King .... I just wonder if he crapped in his pants when he got the news.

Utah_Saint

He probably just laughed and is enjoying the publicity.

To me, that's the most aggravating part of this whole story is the arrogance of the established participants in this drama.

Goodell feels he can decide that this is conduct that is detrimental to the NFL and therefore gets to be the judge, jury, appellate judge, and executioner and not have to explain his position.

He does not have to explain why he didn't chose to use an independent body to hear appeals.

He feels he can just announce that he has more evidence than he is showing and no one, the public at large or even the accused players themselves, are allowed to see it, let alone question it's veracity even after several pieces of evidence have been show to be wrong.

He feels he can change what the players are being punished for but his punishment does not even need to be reviewed. Vilma was being punished for putting $10,000 on the table and calling for someone to injure Brett Favre and Kurt Warner, but now that it has been shown there is absolutely no proof that that ever happened, he is being punished for.... Hargrove was being punished for collecting a bounty and the evidence was the video tape with his voice saying "Give me my money" now that that has been proven not to be Hargrove he is being punished because...

His lawyers in the defamation suit are not even trying to argue the merits of the "bounty" case, they're arguing whether Vilma and the others even deserve the right to a fair process because of a very poorly constructed CBA.

And the media feels it is acceptable to write stories saying the Saints were participating in a bounty program despite the players protests, based solely on what Roger Goodell and the NFL are saying, without ever checking the story for themselves. They do not feel they owe the organization, coaches or players any effort on their part to verify or corroborate the horrible allegations that the league is making before dragging their names threw the mud.

It seems there is an elite group of individuals that will decide what will happen and how it will be presented to the public. And they do not feel they need to explain anything.

It's pure arrogance, plain and simple.

(stepping off soapbox now)