maybe because the commish said if you say you did it, we won’t ban you for life. most snitches get something for cooperating

1. They know that continuing the punishments without allowing the accused to examine the witnesses will cause the federal court to conclude that the result is tainted with partiality; thus, the punishments would be reversed and, perhaps, the NFL and Goodell and Tags would be sanctioned by the court. And federal court sanctions can be harsh. Such a result would make Vilma’s defamation suit against Goodell a foregone conclusion – the irony being that Goodell would be the one getting, rather than giving, a huge fine.

2. They have serious doubts that Williams has the intestinal fortitude to lie the NFL’s lie about Vilma if Vilma is staring him down face to face. When under oath, and the penalty of perjury applies, it’s awfully hard for a coward to lie about a man to his face. Otherwise, there’s no reason to finagle it so that Vilma can’t be there personally.

If you’re going to lie, agree on the lie and stick with it.

I’m not a Saints fan but I am appalled by the treatment of these players. Stop cyber bullying.

You should check the facts before posting silly things like this. Since day one of this sham, their story is the same : pay-per-performance yes, pay-to-injure no.

On the other hand, you can’t say the same about the NFL. Just see how many diferents definition of what a bounty is Goodell gave us. See how at first you could see Hargrove’ lips moving. See how Fujita was suspended 4 games for his role in the so-called bounty program..

Really? He didn’t get along with Sean Payton. He left the Saints one step ahead of the axe after his defense disintegrated in San Francisco. When the NFL cornered him and his future livelihood was on the line, you can’t think of a single reason he might want to deflect some of the blame? At the time, there was some chance of him coaching again. Now, he can’t retract his declarations even if he was so inclined. He’d go to jail.

If the NFL would have handed out the five yard penalty this offense deserved rather than the multiple fifteen-yarders with ejections, this would have been over long ago. Now, they should just pick up the flag. They should just drop this thing. Drop it now or it’s just going to drag right on through the Super Bowl.

That’s what the league/Goodell have been claiming all along. In addition to the cover up, the existence of the program is why the suspensions were handed out in the first place. Williams’ and Cerullo’s statements are entirely consistent on this critical fact.

The date of Williams’ declaration is a red herring. Absolutely all of its substantive information was incorporated into the allegations announced by the league made six months previously in March. There was nothing new. Williams states this in the declaration.

Through their attorneys, Smith and Vilma will get their pound of flesh. Tagliabue will rule that the league’s/Goodell’s allegations against the players were true.

The league and Goodell have been factually correct all along.

They should schedule it for the day before or after, if it has to be this week. I mean just a week ago we were told it wouldn’t be during the season that this was completed. Can’t the hearing wait a week or a day for that matter?