Your boss comes into your office one day and tells you that you are suspended without pay for one year for sexual harassment. You say you’ve never sexually harassed anyone, who made the claims, what is the evidence. Your boss says you’ll have to trust me that I have the evidence. You say it’s not fair, can I appeal? Sure, your boss says, but your appeal will be heard by me.

Your boss then walks out of the office and holds a press conference naming you as a sexual harasser and stating that you’ve been suspended for a year. He boasts that your suspension proves the company’s commitment to women’s rights (which indirectly helps the company’s position in the former employee lawsuits).

I”ll never get a job again you think. This isn’t fair. What can I do?

This is exactly how Vilma feels right now, just sub the NFL for the company.

_______________________________________

Or…. Imagine you and a bunch of your coworkers are harassing an employee. Your bosses admit to it by taking there punishment. People even have one of the bosses on tape encouraging the harassment. You remember the last time someone got in trouble by this company, the president didn’t release the evidence. You, lacking in pride and morals, listen to the morons screaming for evidence and think you can get away with this by demanding the evidence.

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Your boss comes into your office one day and tells you that you are suspended without pay for one year for sexual harassment. You say you’ve never sexually harassed anyone, who made the claims, what is the evidence. Your boss says you’ll have to trust me that I have the evidence. You say it’s not fair, can I appeal? Sure, your boss says, but your appeal will be heard by me.

Your boss then walks out of the office and holds a press conference naming you as a sexual harasser and stating that you’ve been suspended for a year. He boasts that your suspension proves the company’s commitment to women’s rights (which indirectly helps the company’s position in the former employee lawsuits).

I”ll never get a job again you think. This isn’t fair. What can I do?

This is exactly how Vilma feels right now, just sub the NFL for the company.

lol

Give Vilma another year for stupidity. He claims over and over that he paid no money. He has not ever denied that he offered the money and in this case the intent is as bad as the actual crime.
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Read the compliant, genius:

35. Vilma never established, or assisted in establishing, a Bounty Program or any
similar program in violation of NFL rules.

36. Vilma never “pledged,” made or received payments of any kind encouraging or
resulting from an opposing player being carried off the field, i.e., “cart-offs.”

37. Vilma never “pledged,” made or received payments of any kind encouraging or
resulting from an opposing player being unable to return to the game, i.e., “knockouts.”

38. Vilma never “pledged,” made or received payments of any kind encouraging or
resulting from an opposing player being injured.

39. Vilma never “targeted” an opposing player in any manner that would violate NFL
rules.

40. Vilma never engaged “in unsafe and prohibited conduct intended to injure
players.”

41. Vilma never “participate[d] in a program that potentially injured opposing
players.”

42. Vilma never “embraced” a Bounty Program or any similar program in violation of
NFL rules.

43. Vilma never paid, or intended to pay, $10,000, or any amount of money, as an
incentive to any player to knock Warner, Favre, or any other player, out of the 2009 Divisional
Playoff Game, 2010 NFC Championship Game, or any other game.

44. Vilma never placed $10,000, or any amount of money, on any table or anywhere
else as part of a Bounty Program or any other program in violation of NFL rules.

I don’t for a second think the Saints are 100% innocent. I am certain they had a pay for performance system in place. I believe that included big hits on players, not just interceptions or fumble recoveries. I also believe, and am backed up by countless current and former player’s public interviews, that this goes on across the league and has for as long as the league has been in existence. The argument that this “it happens everywhere” argument does not apply is not acceptable. Saints fans take issue that they, as one team, seem to take the punishment for an entire league, in order to stop a practice that is as old as the league itself. I’m sorry, that is not and never will be acceptable or close to fair.

I think the NFL has the right to “clean up the game” where needed. I agree the commissioner should do what he can to protect the integrity of the game. That makes complete sense to anyone. I personally LOVE football so I want the league to be successful.

But what doesn’t make sense is how this entire situation played out. And THAT is what has Saints fans feeling as if they need more than what the league has offered. The argument of “if it were your team you would understand” seems to ring hollow with far too many people.

Why was this “investigation” played out in the media? That is NOT normal. You normally collect your facts, consult your decision makers, and decide on actions needed. Instead, throughout this entire dragged out process, we had multiple weekly leaks from the NFL.

- Sean Payton had an email from an ex-con
- Vilma offered 10k for “bounty”
- Bounties were set on Warner and Favre
- 22-27 Saints players guilty of participating
- Loomis lying to Benson about stopping
- Payton saying “get our ducks in a row”
- and many many more…

Seriously, how on one hand is the NFL soooooo concerned about sharing ANY of its evidence to the public, yet it has consistently leaked any information it felt would shape public opinion? STOP and ask yourself this for a second. You either do or you don’t want to share evidence. And even if you do want to share, logic tells you to wait and share once ALL evidence has been collected in order to tell the complete story and not just snippets of possible truth. Why on God’s green earth would you consistently leak damning “hearsay” if your stance is to NOT share any evidence? IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.

I would argue the point is rather simple. And you all, along with the media, fell right into that trap. The point of leaking that information was always to help create public opinion so strong, the Saints or whoever ended up being involved, would rather just go along with the process that cause any additional waves. The momentum around the situation would be so strong that nobody would question the process or the ending results.

Remember at the beginning, ALL the articles written basically took exactly whatever the league regurgitated and spewed them amongst their viewers as if they were 100% FACT. And everyone watching/reading lapped it up. Now, do you realize the majority of the articles question almost everything the league is saying? Why is that? Media just decided to not be lazy one day and actually start doing they jobs? Nah, I don’t think so. They, like most any rational person, started seeing all the holes in the NFLs story around the Saints “bounty issue”. It honestly is only the fans of some other teams that wish the Saints would simply go back to irrelevance that blindly tell Saints fans to shut up and tell the Saints players/coaches to just accept whatever is handed down without question.

Below are facts that the NFL has misconstrued, I believe, on purpose, to shape public opinion
- Ornstein offering 5k for bounty on Rodgers as evidence – Fact, when asked, Ornstein said it was always meant as a joke and was never actually sent to Payton, he instead got CC’d later to the email string. That is the TRUTH around that “damning evidence” we were all given months ago. Logic tells you a man who was at the time of that email, in jail, and who is still in jail, who has no money, and was on government monitored email when stating said bounty…is actually more likely telling the truth that is was always a JOKE. Tasteless or not, it was given to us as if “Ex-cons help run Saints bounty program” from the NFL through the national media. Why would they tell a half truth like this when their thorough investigation must have included the interview with Ornstein? To help shape public opinion.
- NFL states Williams accepts responsibility for bounty program – Fact, Williams, to date, has not once accepted any responsibility for a “bounty” program or a pay to injure program. He has always stated the Saints had a pay for performance system in place. This is a key distinction. Another fact is that the NFL actually rewrote William’s apology letter before releasing it to the media, based on it not being contrite enough in their opinion. Why would they do that? To help shape public opinion.
- 27 players on Saints team guilty of participating in “bounty” system – Fact, to date, no evidence has been presented per the NFLPA that shows any bounty system ever existed, or that any Saints players paid into said “bounty” system. Also, if 27 players were guilty as once reported by the NFL, why would you only punish 4 players? The argument that the NFL was showing mercy is ludicrous. They have handed down the stiffest penalties in league history every step of the way when dealing with this issue. If they had evidence that 27 players were guilty, we would at least see fines or lower level suspensions for each of these players. Instead, only 4 players, 2 of which no longer even play for the Saints. Why leak 27 players were guilty of participating then? To help shape public opinion.
- Vilma paid 10k for anyone who knocked Favre or Warner out of the game – Fact, semantics seem to rule the day on this one. The NFL later said he “offered” 10K after Hargrove any payment ever being made. So he went from being guilty of paying a bounty, to offering a bounty. There is a large difference between those two things. But why would the NFL mischaracterize this in the beginning? To help shape public opinion.
- NFL states Hargrove testified to details of the existence of a “bounty” system as being major part of their evidence – Fact, Hargrove publically denies his statement ever admitted a “bounty” system existed and states his testimony was agreed to be held private with the NFL. Why would the NFL release this and twist what was said, without initially releasing the statements? To help shape public opinion.
- NFL uses Payton’s apology as admittance of “bounty” program – Fact, Payton, just like Williams, has NEVER admitted to any “bounty” program existing. Once again, he has taken responsibility for a pay for performance system which happened under his watch.

Question any rational person should ask themselves.
- Why did the lead investigator quit during the investigation?
- Why did the NFLPA mentioned said investigator as having answers, when stating the NFLs evidence was non-existent?
- Why would no real evidence ever be shared?
- Why did the NFL constantly leak evidence throughout the process?
- Why did the NFL seek the NFLPAs opinion/acceptance on what punishment was acceptable? They normally decide on ALL punishment without ever asking for the NFLPAs point of view.
- Why did the NFL need another 3 weeks to decide player punishment, when then concluded their investigation a month before? When asked, Goodell stated they needed more time to get their facts together. On what…you have 50,000 pages and finished your investigation?
- Why would one man sue Goodell/NFL if he is actually guilty and the NFL actually has 50,000+ pages of evidence?

Saints fans didn’t create this problem. But we shouldn’t just roll over and accept whatever Goodell decides either.

In 2005, Louisiana was ranked third in the entire nation in terms of money taken in from the federal government v. tax money taken out (they get more than they receive). Since 1985, they have consistently raked in more from the Federal Government than they have paid in taxes, averaging $1.34 returned for every dollar contributed.

I love Louisiana, and New Orleans in particular. Blaming the fiasco on corruption is a good start. But you might want to start a wee bit closer to home. Maybe in a freezer?

He said that and later claimed he was joking.

Who is joking now?

No. Goddell cannot suspend Vilma for this lawsuit (I’m guessing per the CBA). To the extent that you believe Goddell is right, he is vindicated by the fact the Vilma will be paying for his attorney (which isn’t a small chunk of change), and as this case is likely a loser, at some point people will see that the defamation case is dismissed. Which is what they’ll remember (and probably ignore the legalese, like the burdens, and just assume that it means that Vilma is a lying liar, even if it is for technical reasons).

Serious question: Does ANYBODY who doesn’t live in Louisiana think Goodell is randomly framing the Aints?
————————

Randomly framing? Nice red herring. With new plaintiffs joining the lawsuit against the NFL on an almost daily basis, I think the league caught wind of a bounty program and saw an opportunity. They take flimsy evidence of a Saints of a bounty program and “lower the boom”. In the upcoming lawsuit, the NFL can say that the liability is on the players, because they were operating outside NFL rules in an attempt to hurt each other, and the NFL has done everything in its power to stop it.

Goodell made his point loud and clear, but when you start suspending players and coaches for a season, you better make sure your case is air tight, and not a bunch of he said/she said from disgruntled ex-employees.

What evidence have you seen that makes you post your garbage in every Saints thread? Or do you believe Goodell is infallible? No, the truth is you hate the Saints for hammering your Vikes, and don’t care if the Saints did it or not. You just want Goodell to do what your team couldn’t do.

Kiss the ring.

/not in LA

2. If Vilma wants “fairness”, he needs to employ the CBA process that was bargained for by his union. I think that many people on these threads forget that their own employers (absent a union contract) can fire them based on “hearsay, circumstantial evidence, and lies” with absolutely no recourse, and they have no right to “demand all the evidence.”

Goodell has been known to destroy “evidence”, implying that any actually existed in the first place.

Goodell says that by revealing his evidence, it would expose the “whistleblowers”.

Tough sh*t. Vilma and the other punished players have a right to face their accusers… and even then, how can it ever be more than “my word against yours”? Where’s the hard evidence?

@grumblenflgrumble…. My thoughts exactly! You can’t have it both ways! Did the NFL release too much evidence or not enough? Oh boy……. Vilma is gonna be late for his MENSA meetings for sure now. :-p

THANK YOU for writing this. It’s all the evidence anyone needs to prove you Saints fans are total homers. If you had grown up in Atlanta, you wouldn’t give two craps about the Saints.

Do you know how stupid that makes you look?

I’ve seen no proof about play for injury.

I played football my whole life, and it was normal for coaches to coach hitting certain players certain places to help your team win. I rarely had the mindset in the moment to do anything besides tackle.

It’s likely the pay for injury thing was happening based on all the speculation in the media and conclusions that have been jumped to, but if you can’t prove it, why should you be able to go in and keep a man from playing based on he-said/she-said?

This is bigger than, “Is Vilma guilty.” I need you to think a little bigger than the maze and the cheese the media is giving you. If Goodell can just suspend people based on heresay, than he can do anything.

QB for Xteam says “I think Goodell is ruining the NFL.” Goodell gets pissed, someone tells Goodell the QB shoplifts. He’s the QB for your team, and Goodell nails him with a full year suspension based on what amount to rumors and speculation.

All we want is evidence, so us, the Saints fans, just like you, the Saint haters can put this to bed. I don’t want a commish that can just do what the hell he feels like at anytime based on anything he wants. I want transparency. That is what I pay all this ridiculous cash for every year.

Just remember, Saints this year, your team next. It’s going to seem so wrong to you then…