NFL says no offer was made to Vilma

Posted by Mike Florio on August 6, 2012, 11:03 AM EDT
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The league has decided to cut out the middle man.

After initially publicizing its response to the report that Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma has been offered an eight-game reduction in his one-year suspension by leaking a denial to Steve Wyche of the league-owned media machina, the NFL has gone on the record.

“Today’s report about a settlement offer by the league to Jonathan Vilma is completely inaccurate,” the league said in a statement.  “No such settlement offer has been made.  We will continue to respect the court proceedings on this matter and have no further comment at this time.”

That statement may completely accurate.  No “offer” may have been made.  But it’s entirely possible that the league has made it known that, if such an offer would be acceptable by Vilma, such an offer would be made.
Here’s why lawyers make such hypothetical offers.  If the league were to officially offer an eight-game suspension, then Vilma could try to negotiate the number down to four.  By couching it as a hypothetical, the number stays at eight, period.  No further reduction.
And the league also can deny all of it if anyone ever blabs about the non-offer offer being made.

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23 responses to “NFL says no offer was made to Vilma”

  1. Didn’t the NFL already tell Vilma through Jason Cole that they would go to four?

    Heck he will still be rehabbing his knee for 4 games.

  3. Sounds like the fishy story ESPN put out about the wire tapping stuff..it is crap that they make these false remarks about people and not have any consequences for them..

  5. I wouldn’t trust the statements of a league whose original punishment was because basically the Saints were supposedly offering cash rewards for maiming players by any means necessary, but now they’re saying they were punished for legal hits not targeted at specific players.

  7. The league should be, and should have been looking for an avenue to reduce or eliminate the suspensions against the players all along. the NFL has made their point certainly with the coaches suspensions and team penalties. The actions against the players has always seemed dicy and somewhat arbitrary and vindictive.
    Hopefully GOOD sense, or at least better sense can prevail…..

  8. More stink for the NFL and Goodell. Why do I have the feeling this is not going to turn good for Goodell in the long run and may end up costing him his job?

  9. They have not made an official offer because they do not want to negotiate a reduction between 0 and 8 games. Roger Goodell is postering to try to avoid the defamation lawsuit so he does not have to go to court and testify under oath all of the alledged bounty evidence against Jonathan Vilma.

  10. There is no news here. Settlement has always been an option for the parties in this litigation. Hopefully, the parties will elect not to settle, and instead give the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals the opportunity to settle the important questions of law presented by this unprecedented case.

  11. The bottom line is Goodell’s lawyers know he’d lose in court. Expect him to make a deal where he attempts to save face, while reducing suspensions. I’m sure Vilma won’t budge until a package deal is made for the coaches, too. Perhaps he’ll wait until the first week of trial, but when the outcome looks obvious, Goodell will retreat to avoid absolute embarrassment. Shame on you who believed he was holding secret “real” evidence. He’s not to be trusted.

  12. The league has lost all credibility. Goodell, Pash and Co. are just liars and media manipulators.

  13. Vilma won’t drop anything until the league backs off the pay for injury crap and makes this about pay for performance. No way Goodell does that. He passed the point of no return when he doled out the ridiculous suspensions to Payton, Vitt, and Loomis.

  14. Apparently someone is lying. So if the league never made such an offer – that means ESPN is starting rumors and can NOT be trusted on anything they report or print. Sooner or later, someone (organization) has to take responsibility for what they print or say. Thats what’s wrong with media in general everything is hear-say; nothing factual.

  15. Goodell clearly has decided that he is caesar. He’d best rethink his position or there end result may be the termination of his relationship with the NFL. What Goodell seems to not to grasp is that Tagliabue had a strong relationship with the union–some accuse Upshaw of having been a stooge or in the League’s pocket but those people just can’t come to grips with how an intelligent partnership between a union and an enterprise works: both sides agree to conduct business in a mutually beneficial manner, in a way that makes “business sense”.

  16. Sometimes I think the media over thinks these things. Some source told ESPN this fake news and they ran with it. Nothing more, nothing less.

  17. Under the next CBA, you will see godell selling hot dogs and beer to NFL fans. Maybe the same fans, who got screwed at Dallas Superbowl a couple of years ago.

    What goes around comes around.

    Where is the integrity now?

  18. Can will just play football? Tired of all this -gate nonsense. Maybe we have to call the actual play on the field “football-gate” for the media to get interested.

  19. dvdman123 says:Aug 6, 2012 11:35 AM
    More stink for the NFL and Goodell. Why do I have the feeling this is not going to turn good for Goodell in the long run and may end up costing him his job?
    ______________
    You’ve got to be kidding me. Is that wishful thinking? Goodell is saving the NFL. He knows it. The owners know it. And the more astute players (who are silent because of their NFLPA membership) know it. If anything, the owners will reward him with a salary increase.

  20. I may be wrong…..but……isn’t this court case about whether goodell has the right and/or the power to suspend vilma, according to the new cba agreement?

  21. Agree with the above “Do the crime do the time” take your punishment like a man and move on.

  22. The NFL is a ALL about public relations and to say/believe Goodell is improving or helping with that is VERY VERY naive. He made a MOUNTAIN out of mole hill and is now paying the price for it.

  23. The hypocracy of the NFL never ends…..
    They say there is a bounty for injury and everyone is just suppost to trust them with no shown proof! Now a story somehow just appears from nowhere and they know nothing about it! Really? Just trust you again?

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