Burden of proof in a defamation case is ALWAYS on the plaintiff – meaning Vilma. He would have to prove in a court that Goodell made a false statement about him and that it directly injured or damaged him. There is zero chance of that happening. How could Vilma prove that it is false? He can claim that it is false, but prove it? Good luck. Even harder to prove damages outside of the CBA, considering the CBA allows that discipline. Vilma is wasting taxpayer dollars with frivolous lawsuits and my guess is that at least one of them will be tossed and never see a court room.

Let me put it this way…
“If you did not do a certain something wrong, and the league calls you in and states they have evidence that you did that certain something wrong, how can you sit there and ‘take it like a man’ without defending youself?”

“but these clowns chose to not go to a meeting where they would have received it and now they complain about having not enough time to review everything”

Well, it appears we have another Saints hater that still has their head buried in the sand. Maybe you didn’t catch it when Hargrove said he had a meeting scheduled with the NFL to see their evidence and answer questions that the NFL cancelled without reason and never rescheduled. I am POSITIVE you will find a way to blame that on him though. Your hatred of the Saints is clearly noted, as well as your apparent age group. Don’t be late for school tomorrow.

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Um, stop right there. They don’t? What planet are you from? Of course innocent people ask for evidence. If someone is falsely accused and thrown in jail although they are 100% innocent, they don’t ask for evidence of what they did and have the evidence presented scrutinized to prove their innocence?
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You are right. That didn’t come off quite the way I intended. I mean that the ONLY thing these guys are doing is demanding evidence. They were given (arguably) adequate time to address things. Innocent people would have provided witnesses corroborating their story rather than just trying to figure out a technical loophole. Of course innocent people will want to see the evidence (in conjunction with other actions taken) but these clowns chose to not go to a meeting where they would have received it and now they complain about having not enough time to review everything. Their tactics and stories change constantly…but the truth doesn’t change.

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Um, stop right there. They don’t? What planet are you from? Of course innocent people ask for evidence. If someone is falsely accused and thrown in jail although they are 100% innocent, they don’t ask for evidence of what they did and have the evidence presented scrutinized to prove their innocence? Good lord people can be daft. The FIRST thing an innocent person says when accused of something falsely is show me the proof. Guilty people who just want to get out of something too. No doubt. But to say innocent people don’t ask for proof is pretty silly. I guess Brian Banks should have stopped pushing to prove his innocence and stayed in jail. Seriously people?

Fact 1: The players union and the NFL met to negotiate a new contract.

Fact 2: The old CBA Upshaw had negotiated ended, disappeared and combusted into ash the moment it expired.

Fact 3: The players stood on certain things like revenue and super weak preseason camps instead of discipline.

I still contend that they could have gotten a much better deal on discipline if they were willing to bend on something else. They decided that it was less important than say. . . ‘vacation fantasy training camps’.

They made their bed and can commence lying in it.

Maybe in a decade or so the NFLPA will decide that allowing the Commish near dictatorial powers is something they would like change and seriously stand against. Then they can get that put in the next CBA that they draw up.

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One Owner does not own the NFL. Owner’s own separate franchises, hence the need for a commissioner to rule, regardless of what one owner wants. If Goodell wants somebody gone, there is just about nothing one owner can do. by the same token, one owner can not tell Goodell to “screw off”. I think that is the point ratedgap was trying to make.

Don’t get caught up in symantics. There is no rule that lists “bounties”. Goodell is simply exercising discipline over a situation where he retains complete authority. Look at the clause that governs this issue (the one that gives Goodell this authority) and you will see the generalization to which “bounties”, “pay for performance” programs, cover-ups, and lying to investigators all apply. Who cares what the media or anybody else calls the situation? The bottom line is that these guys did wrong, got caught, have been punished, and now they are yelling to anybody who will listen. Do no crime and there is little to worry about. These guys were not falsely accused of conduct detrimental to the game/league and that is basically what they are being punished for.

This whole scenario and all the drama/media coverage is sickening. It needs to go away.

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If this was the case, and Goodell was a true employee of the owners, then Tom Benson could tell Goodell to screw off with suspending his coaches and GM and keep them on right? I mean, it’s Benson’s team, and Goodell works for Benson right? See how that doesn’t fit with the landscape of the NFL? Apply this to the private sector. Say you want to work for Microsfot in the mailroon. Your buddy oversees the entire mailroom operation, and he wants to hire you on. Say Microsoft higher ups so no you can’t hire this guy. Is there anything you buddy could do to get you on? Absolutely not. You have the RIGHT to work most anywhere you like, doesn’t mean you will get hired on. If Goodell wants to keep a coach out of the league, believe me they will be out of the league. Williams has an indefinite suspension, what do you think would happen if an owner said screw that I am hiring him anyway? Goodell works for me. It wouldn’t happen. For some reason you aren’t grasping the reality of how this works. If Goodell says someone is out, they are out. Point blank end of story. Now, an owner could sue the NGL and goodell to get a coach they want to hire that badly allowed into the league, but who is gonna go through all that trouble? No one. Just find another coach. Sorry, after the appears were denied, coaches had no choice but to sit and take it. They can’t even speak out on it, cause if Goodell wants them out, they will be out. You can multiply that by 100 id they tried to sue.

In the meantime the dimwitted population was chanting “move on! accept your punishment!”.

Goddell STILL works for the owners, and if he’s found in the wrong in a court case and the coaches are proven to be innocent there’s NO grounds for him to keep anyone out of employment in the league. The coaches aren’t bound by any CBA and if Benson wanted Peyton and Williams back he could have them. IF they proved their case in a court of law.

Since everyone else is expressing their opinions, I figure I will do the same. My law background is extensive research of Law and Order, and years ago, The Practice. RG has no obligation to release more than what he has, and in the time frame he has (note I stated obligation via the CBA, although I believe that he would have saved himself a huge PR nightmare by doing so and giving this process a more transparent appearance). If this does go to a federal court, it is not likely that they will rule on the length of suspensions, etc. Rather they will look to see if RG stepped outside of his bounds as his position of the commissioner. More specifically, if the CBA states that the appearance of a rules violation, etc appears to be against the best interests of the NFL, then they will rule in his favor. This will likely become more of a labor/CBA issue instead of a right/wrong or fair/unfair issue. Based on the evidence released, there certainly appears to be enough to support a possible finding (i.e. Rothlesberger – not charged or convicted of a crime, however, suspended due to conduct detrimental to the league), which leads me to the second issue, Vilma’s defamation lawsuit.

The defamation lawsuit is unlikely to be successful, because all RG needs to show is that with the evidence collected, there was a pay-for-performance program, and that some of the evidence could reasonably lead to the assumption of a pay-for-injury program. He does not need to prove that it existed, just that it may have existed (this is my understanding after discussions with friends of mine who are practicing attorneys in various disciplines).

I am sure that some will agree and some will disagree with my opinions, that is our right on a blog. All we are saying (all of us) are that these are our opinions. Saints fans are likely going to call foul regardless of the evidence provided, and people in RGs court are going to say he is in the right regardless of the evidence produced. To those that are crying over a miscarriage of justice, please realize that the Brian Banks situation is truly a miscarriage of justice. This will eventually be worked out, either in a court of law or otherwise. BB has lost years of his life and an opportunity to play at the highest level (possibly), due to false allegations and bad legal advice from a legal aide attorney. Please place all of this in perspective, these players certainly should have placed some money away in savings for a “rainy day”, although I imagine they were not expecting this… Not saying that I do not feel for the players, rather, place this in perspective please

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Say what? Of course Goodell would be able to keep them out of the league. Are you serious? They don’t have a union. Goodell can ban any coach he wants from being employed by the league. He can deny employment to anyone just like any other company can. He doesn’t have to announce it, but he can make it known certain coaches are personna non grata. So yeah, they may get a temporary win in court, but a lifetime of earning potential in their profession of choice would be lost in the process. Get it now?

It’s hard, nay, impossible for me to dredge up even a modicum of compassion for a group of individuals who’ve refused to defend themselves at every turn. Have changed their stories numerous times, and only cry to the media about the woes of the unfairness of the appeals process, that they themselves signed off on.

You know what most people do when they’re accused of something they didn’t do? They try to explain their side of the situation, provide evidence to that end, and seek to have the accusations overturned. Nothing, of the sort is going on here.

Why haven’t the coaches denied everything? Why hasn’t the GM denied everything? That’s really the biggest factor in my book. The players can bandy words all they like, but in the end, the people who’ve been punished with equal severity are seemingly very quiet throughout all of this.
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Please tell me how you prove you didn’t do something. How do you prove a negative. I can get 5 people to spend some time with you and later claimed that you raped someone. How do you prove you didn’t do it? That’s the genius of the US court system and why it makes it one of the best in the world despite its imperfections. It requires the accuser to prove you did something not the accussed to prove they didn’t. At every turn the players have said I didn’t do that and really that’s all they need to do. Now it’s the job of their accusser to show what evidence he has that lead him to conclude the players did do that. When someone has over “50,000 pages” of evidence to use against someone else and is only willing to share a small fraction of that….well I don’t care what system you’re talking about, court or CBA….that’s a joke process.

Then he convinced the players to renew his contract. He should run for office.” This deal was the hopiest, hope we could hope for. Oh and we got some change too.”

Because they can only be reinstated by Godell. What do you think the chances of that happening if they fight him in court. He holds their careers in his hands.

If they actually WERE innocent and took it to a court of law. The evidence would be put in front of a judge or jury and THEY would decide if there was any wrong doing and Goddell losing opens the door to have him ousted and if they were found to have done no wrong how can Goddell keep any owner(who he actually works for) from keeping these guys in the league? Heck Donte Stallworth is still on a roster and he killed a guy………

He never apologized for (not admitted) to their being a Bounty system, which is the NFL’s accusation. No one has admitted to a bounty system, including Williams, whose apology was written by the NFL by the way.
and I need help?
I think I understand it fine, and IF Williams and Payton WERE not guilty and fought Goddell and won, Goddell would have no recourse on their ability to make a living in the NFL. If you didn’t see the pay sheets and don’t understand them or want to turn a blind eye and just say it was warrior mentality NFL talk then go ahead.

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another one that didn’t bother to read the article fully. goodell NEVER agreed to show them ANY evidence when he gave them a chance to meet. it was ‘you’re accused of this because i said so, what do you have to say for yourself?’ and secondly, he showed the evidence to the players (the evidence he gave them) then pulled the old switcheroo on them when the hearing commenced and used another ‘set’ of ‘evidence’ to explain why they were disciplined.

you know, drew was right, if you tell a lie enough, it will eventually become truth.

You know what most people do when they’re accused of something they didn’t do? They try to explain their side of the situation, provide evidence to that end, and seek to have the accusations overturned. Nothing, of the sort is going on here.

Why haven’t the coaches denied everything? Why hasn’t the GM denied everything? That’s really the biggest factor in my book. The players can bandy words all they like, but in the end, the people who’ve been punished with equal severity are seemingly very quiet throughout all of this.

Well wake up. The coaches admitted to having a pay-for-performance sytem and so did the players. The players are fighting this so hard because they’ve been punished for a pay-for-injury system and their reputations and future earning potentials have been severely diminished. The punishment does not fit the crime. It’s like you getting a speeding ticket and the punishedment was you being characterized as trying to hit little old ladies in your car and given 20 years in jail. Wouldn’t you fight that?