Utah_Saint

All four players in the New Orleans Saints bounty case have filed appeals with the NFL, according to sources close to the players, in advance of Friday's deadline to do so.

The appeals fall under the collective bargaining agreement process and follow Commissioner Roger Goodell's re-issuing of sanctions on Tuesday.

The NFL later confimed they had received the players' appeals.

The commissioner reduced Anthony Hargrove's suspension from eight games to seven, and Scott Fujita's suspension from three games to one, while affirming the year-long suspension for Jonathan Vilma and four-game suspension for Will Smith. Goodell allowed time served for Vilma (on the Saints' physically unable to perform (PUP) list) and Hargrove (free agent), and said Vilma could keep the game checks accumulated while on the PUP list.

Fujita, a former Saint, is currently on the Cleveland Browns' roster.

Vilma's appeal comes with a twist -- he has asked that the commissioner recuse himself from the appeals process. The NFL fought for the commissioner to retain power over appeals in cases of "conduct detrimental" during last year's labor negotiations, and Goodell stepping aside in such a case would be unprecedented.

The priority for the four players, according to sources, was to avoid the enforcement of the suspensions. So filing the appeals serves as a stopgap.

Vilma's request for a preliminary injunction -- which would lift the suspension while his defamation case against Goodell plays out -- remains under consideration by a federal court in Louisiana. Smith, Hargrove and Fujita all withdrew their requests for injunctions after the CBA appeals panel sent the suspensions back to Goodell in early September, but all could refile for injunctions at any time


You'd think this would just be common sense and that Vilma wouldn't have to ask specifically for an impartial judge for the appeal.


Players appeal New Orleans Saints bounty suspensions - NFL.com

TXGSP

Didn't realize Smith, Hargrove, & Fujita withdrew their injunction requests.

Utah_Saint

yeah, I missed that too.

lee909

So the players no longer a Saint get reduction to suspension and Smith doesn't.

TXGSP

Just based on the reduction of suspensions of others involved Smith & Vilma should request the same thing.

Hargrove and Fujita shoud do the same thing based on the perceived bias against the other two players that did not have their suspensions reduced.

Vilma has a good reason to have Der Kommisar recused - just the perception he is biased based on the ongoing defamation lawsuit and the possible bias when reducing suspensions of other players involved.

Any standing judge would recuse themselves if they faced a similar situation - just to avoid the percieved bias the situation holds. Der Kommisar is a fool if he doesn't recuse himself, but thinks the CBA will protect him.

This one thing lends itself to an appeal and pushing it back into court and a ruling by Berrigan.

An Optimist sees the big picture and views obstacles as temporary hurdles

Shoe.

I'm as tired of hearing about this as I imagine everyone else is.

But I want Vilma to keep doing what he's doing, keep this in the media, and keep making goodell think about this, day in and day out.

rog has made our lives as fans more difficult because we have to deal with all aspects of the fallout of this situation (losing games, dealing w trolls here, etc), and thusly I want Vilma and his lawyers to make this as much of a headache for the commissioner as possible. Keep it up JV, you're fighting the good fight IMO

Mardigras9

I agree with you here.

TheOak

Vilmas request.... Just another way of asking "will you let someone else handle the appeal?"

no change in that song and dance... Goodell has fought to NOT get it taken away from him...

QBREES9

Yeah like that will ever happen.

UK_WhoDat

I missed that three