The start-and-stop bounty hearings started again this afternoon, and they finally have stopped.
Though Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma didn’t return (as expected), the other three players returned. And after Saints defensive end Will Smith, Packers defensive end Anthony Hargrove, and Browns linebacker Scott Fujita left the league offices, Fujita stopped to speak to the media.
“The NFL’s investigation has been highlighted by sensationalized headlines and unsubstantiated leaks to the media. I have yet to see anything that implicates me . . . not in the last three months and not today,” Fujita said, via Barry Wilner of the Associated Press. “The NFL has been careless and irresponsible, and at some time will have to provide answers.”
Per Jim Varney of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Fujita was “clearly fighting emotions” as he spoke.
“It’s been very hard,” Fujita said, adding that anyone who has disagreed with the league’s take on the bounty case has been labeled a “liar.”
Now that I’m back in PFT headquarters after a day in Pittsburgh getting my annual full physical (and all that that implies), I’m going to look at every page that the NFL produced to the NFLPA on Friday, and that PFT obtained earlier today.
Then, I’ll give my take on whether and to what extent the evidence shows guilt. And I may have one or two more things to say about whether and to what extent the NFL’s effort to protect the shield has in this case actually done damage to it.