SmashMouth

The four players suspended as part of the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal asked the NFL commissioner to recuse himself from the appeals process. When Goodell did just that Friday it reverberated like an earthquake across the league’s landscape.




Players have fought him tooth and nail since the league announced its findings in the Saints case in March.

By removing himself, and conferring with players union chief DeMaurice Smith as he did so, Goodell might have taken the first significant step in repairing his fractured relations with players.

No question, Goodell still believes believes Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith, Anthony Hargrove and Scott Fujita were the players who most deserve to be punished for the bounty program. ( I still wonder though about the roles of the other couple dozen players the league said were involved when the scandal surfaced.)

Goodell had better hope his former boss Paul Tagliabue, whom he appointed to oversee the appeals, agrees with the gist of the previous rulings.

If not, Goodell really will have some explaining to do.

The league believes its case, verified independently by former U.S. attorney Mary Jo White, will stand up. But the players have argued the evidence was weak, conclusions were drawn without due process and that the players disciplined were unfairly singled out.

So here we are again, with another compelling twist.

Maybe by appointing Tagliabue to rule, Goodell has found a path to finally end this.

Maybe.

It’s still possible the players might not agree with Tagliabue’s decisions and then individually (Vilma vs. Goodell) or collectively, pursue their pending legal cases.

But no matter how Tagliabue rules, the players already have advanced their position and forced Goodell to backtrack. Even though the commissioner appointed his designee, the fundamental issue of Goodell as judge, jury and executioner has been addressed.

And that sets quite the precedent.

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