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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saintsfan1976

Lesson learned Mr. Goodell. Don't try and build a case around a verdict

Boutte

I don't think Tagliabue is going to do anything that will discredit Goodel in any way.

Shoe.

Dog and pony, nothing more. Slightly reduced penalties for show I'm betting. The guy, Tags, is still making a boatload off of the NFL these days

saintfan

This isn't Roger losing power. This is Roger's latest attempt to manipulate this thing to fit his agenda. Don't be fooled.

UK_WhoDat

Agree.
For once, Goodell is using a little intelligence. A worry.

Tobias-Reiper

I don't think they would be any "slightly reduced" penalties. The whole affair will still hinge in pay for performance vs pay to injure, and the players aren't exactly asking for mercy, they are denying pay to injure. I think it's all-in for everyone involved.

And obviously 2 things can happen: Tagliabue sings the current company line and rules "pay to injure", then it's back to court. Or, it may very well be that Tagliabue will say "no evidence of pay to injure", which actually would benefit the NFL, especially after the re-airing of "smash for cash", and follow me here for a second: remember that smash for cash aired in 1996. It also happens that the ex-players suing the NFL, most of them played before Goodell was commissioner, and played during that time. So, the ex-players suing the NFL could argue that whatever this commissioner is doing today has no relevance to when they were lied to about brain injuries or when they were actually injured, which would've happened at a time when the league turned a blind eye to bounties.

'Cause the simple man pays the thrills, the bills and the pills that kill

alexonfyre

Roger Goodell is like the Vladmir Putin of sports, except that's an insult to Putin.

TheEnigma

Terrible commissioner. That is all

Speedy Ron

This isn't as great as it sounds. It was a strategic move by goodell. Tag isn't going to make a completely different ruling. Goodell knows this. It would be different if the nflpa were the ones to pick the person.