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Commissioner Goodell has crafted a "revised punishment" that continues his previous grossly misplaced interpretation of the "evidence." What the Commissioner did today is not justice, nor just. The suspension has the fingerprints of lawyers trying to fit a square peg into a round hole to appease an Appeals Panel decision ordering the Commissioner to pay attention to his authority under the CBA. Someone needs to tell the Commissioner directly that his duties also include being true to the evidence, to fundamental notions of due process and to the integrity of the game. That time hopefully will come soon.

Rather than fairly and impartially evaluate the evidence, the Commissioner instead has wrapped his arms around the architect of pay-for-performance programs, Gregg Williams, and attributes Williams' inflammatory language and bizarre slide shows not to Williams but to the players Williams coached.

Jonathan Vilma did not offer a bounty or any incentive to any teammate to injure an opposing player. Commissioner Goodell has now called every one of the dozen or more players and coaches a "liar" who has played the games with Jonathan and been in the locker room with Jonathan and who has sworn under oath to that fact. And to make matters worse, the Commissioner blatantly ignores other evidence that shows Jonathan did not do what the Commissioner, again, accuses him of doing. As but one example, Jonathan's bank records show that he did not withdraw $10,000 from his account at any time during the 2009 playoffs (or at any other time), the time period when the Commissioner claims Jonathan offered that amount of money as a bounty on Kurt Warner and Brett Favre. Consistent with the Commissioner's disregard of the evidence, he did not even request to see the bank records showing this fact.

As another example, in the sworn statements of Williams and Mike Cerullo, the people the Commissioner found "credible," Cerullo swore under oath that he turned Jonathan's $10,000 over to Williams after the Warner game when no one "earned the bounty," and before the Favre game. Williams swears he never received any money from Cerullo or anyone else. Commissioner Goodell has further damaged Jonathan's reputation, compromised his career, and cast an unfair cloud over a fine and decent man. It is unfortunate that the process exhibited by the NFL has had no decency.

Jonathan Vilma's lawyer rips bounty suspension - NFL.com

73Saint

Enough of this. I really just wish Vilma and his attorneys would let it all go. I know they won't, I'm just sick of hearing and talking about it, and it's obvious Goodell isn't interested in reducing anything.

saintfan

No way. Would YOU just let it go? I know I wouldn't.

QBREES9

Commissioner Goodell has now called every one of the dozen or more players and coaches a "liar" who has played the games with Jonathan and been in the locker room with Jonathan and who has sworn under oath to that fact. And to make matters worse, the Commissioner blatantly ignores other evidence that shows Jonathan did not do what the Commissioner, again, accuses him of doing. As but one example, Jonathan's bank records show that he did not withdraw $10,000 from his account at any time during the 2009 playoffs (or at any other time), the time period when the Commissioner claims Jonathan offered that amount of money as a bounty on Kurt Warner and Brett Favre. Consistent with the Commissioner's disregard of the evidence, he did not even request to see the bank records showing this fact.

www.sportsshooter.com/johnjcoleman

" Anyone can take a picture Only a Photographer can take a photograph "

AsylumGuido

Hell no! Vilma isn't in the wrong. Why would he give it up. I hope he keeps it up until Goodell's ass is destroyed. This isn't about any trivial suspension. It is ALL about false accusations that have impacted a good person's reputation. I am sorry that you are tired of hearing about it, but I am more than willing to hear about it every day until Vilma and the others are vilified.

onebyone

Keep fighting Vilma!

I am glad he's not just taking Der Kommissar's crap. I think it is bloody ridiculous what the NFL is doing to him and am glad Vllma is standing up to him. Makes me proud.

Halo

Truth be told Vilma is NOT fighting Roger Goodell, rather he's fighting the NFL owners who are a-holes, and who employ Goodell and tell him what to do.

Goodell is a puppet for the NFL owners - end of story. Vilma is figuratively fighting an upcoming lawsuit, in the future, where Goodell will be required to testify in a case against the NFL and its owners for covering up evidence they had since the 70's that - repetitive hits to the head and concussions cause LONG TERM affects in players - the NFL knew this and covered this up.

Vilma and the Saints have been sacraficed on the alter of justice so Goodell can sit in a courtroom and tell a future jury "look at what we did! We stopped the Saints bounty. We paid money to foundations to help study brain injuries. We worked with Riddell to add more padding to helmets. We did everything in our power to prevent head injuries."

All the while NFL owners raked in cash while former players were hit silly while serving. Some shudder, other have memory loss, while others just plain blew their brains out.

Most people about to sign a multi-year multi-million dollar contract at least want to know they are donating their brain to the NFL for that price before signing that contract.

Don't believe me? Watch this - link

The players lawsuit against the NFL is called the BIGGEST LAWSUIT IN THE HISTORY OF SPORTS.
You WILL see this on ABC, CBS, NBC etc, you WILL NOT see this on ESPN.

Basically the NFL owners knew that head injures suffered from a career in football causes irreversible brain trauma. The NFL hid this, sold out, and pushed the sport harder and harder for the almighty dollar instead of revealing it, paying the price, improving safety, and moving forward.



You also have to consider that football in the 1970's and early 80's is not a 10th of what it is today (regardless of what you think). Back then if news broke that football causes brain injuries and every mom would have pulled their kid from playing playground football. Basketball and Soccer would have filled the void leaving the sport of football behind - football would have been known as a dangerous sport.

Check out the NFL making large donations to concussion research as late as Sept 5, 2012 - come on guys, this is what is gong on. Did you see this breaking news on ESPN?

Tom Benson is in on the gag, he's an owner and also tells Goodell what to do. A gigantic loss in court means Benson has to ante up his 1/32'nd he's responsible for of the BILLIONS the NFL could potentially have to pay the 2,000 former players suing them. Believe me Benson, along with other owners, is stashing as much money as possible away right now to just pay the legal team to defend the biggest lawsuit in the history of sport!

Vilma is just a part of a bigger poo-poo sandwich that the NFL's fans have to take a bite out of either now or later. Vilma gets first bites. Rest to come later, including changing the game to make any hits with or to the head ILLEGAL.

The game as we know it will change. It's already done, and you can thank the NFL owners for selling out years ago and leaving the tab for the future of the league to pay for.

Vilma cannot help our team this season. I feel his pain, support him all the way, but he is fighting a gigantic uphill battle that the NFL has sworn to defiantly fight just so Goodell can sit in that examination chair before a jury and use Vilma as an example of what "good" the NFL tried to do to prevent brain injuries all these years.

What would help this team this season is getting Sean Payton back and that's obviously not going to happen.

Beastmode

Waiting on Freeh to finish his investigation and get his take on the situation.

SmashMouth

TheOak

Halo,

You alluded to something Ive had a conspiracy theory on for months now just figured its way too far out there for most to be able to digest.