Commish Drops Hammer on Saints Players

[BIGREDSKINSFAN1963]

Originally Posted by justinskins

Tax evasion maybe (though it seems pretty trifling given that the amounts at stake were fractions of the salaries of everyone involved). On conspiracy, you have the same problem as before: was what they agreed to do actually a crime?

I Think the legal system wants this to go away like the saints and the league does just for the sheer amount of money involved all the way around.
i firmly think if under the table payoffs and assaults which some of these cheap shots were,had taken place in some other business,they'd feel the full weight of the law from the state,fed,and local level.

[akhhorus]

Link to follow but the the bulk of the NFL's case against the Saints came from documents that the dumb*ss players and team left on computers inside the Saints' building. Also, the evidence is pretty damning according to the 12 reporters who were allowed to see it.

EDIT:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-sh...6547--nfl.html

After the hearing, the NFL brought in 12 reporters, including Peter King of SI.com, Mike Freeman of CBS Sports and Bob Glauber of Newsday.com. According to several of those reporters, what the league presented was explosive, compelling, and quite damning.

"First, [a] good chunk of the NFL's evidence came from Saints own computer system," Freeman wrote on Twitter. "[Former Saints defensive coordinator] Gregg Williams was clearly the biggest source for NFL but [there's] no question [the] league has many other sources. Owner [Tom] Benson was cooperative with the league granting investigators access to Saints computer system. Saints kept bounty info on [their] computer system. Williams told investigators he was 'rolling the dice with player safety and someone could have been maimed.' Saints used Dog the Bounty Hunter as motivation."

King first revealed that according to the evidence presented, the bounty set on the head of Brett Favre in the 2009 NFC championship game was actually $35,000, not $10,000 as believed at one time.

"NFL just showed reporters evidence in Saints case, incl[uding] allegation of $35k bounty, not just $10k, to knock Favre out of '09 NFC title game," King tweeted. " NFL also showed evidence on ledger that S Roman Harper once was due $1000 for knocking NYG RB Brandon Jacobs from a game. The $35k bounty on Favre, the league claims, included a $5000 pledge from current interim Saints coach Joe Vitt.

"The NFL's charges are explosive, compelling," King continued. "Twelve reporters just heard the league's evidence. To clarify, the 12 reporters were told they were getting the same presentation the players got earlier in the afternoon."

[akhhorus]

The evidence from Peter King:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...&sct=hp_t11_a0

• The testimony from disgraced defensive coordinator Gregg Williams to the league, in which he said he knew the program "was rolling the dice with player safety and someone could have been maimed."

• The charge, from what the league said was a handwritten note from a Saints defensive coach, that the defense pledged $35,000 for a defender to knock Brett Favre out of the January 2010 NFC Championship Game -- including a $5,000 pledge to the kitty from current Saints interim coach Joe Vitt. (Vitt denies the charge.)

• The three sources the NFL claims to have who told league investigators linebacker Jonathan Vilma spurred the bounty on Favre by offering $10,000 himself during a night-before-the-game motivational speech by, as one of the sources said, "raising his hands, each of which held stacks of bills, that he had two 'five-stacks,''' to give to the player who knocked Favre from the game.

• The NFL Films-recorded quote from defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove, as first reported by SI in March, with Hargrove saying to defensive teammate Bobby McCray, "Give me my money,'' after Vitt told the team that Favre was out of the game with a leg injury. (Favre did return to the game without missing a play, but that wasn't apparent when Hargrove made his declaration to McCray.)

• The PowerPoint slide collected from a sweep of the Saints' computer system, from the night before the Saints' playoff loss at Seattle in January 2011, complete with a picture of TV bounty hunter Duane "Dog'' Chapman, that said, "Now is the time to do our job ... collect bounty $$$! No apologies! Let's go hunting!''

• The unending stream of evidence from Saints computers, which is going to create some very strange bedfellows inside the Saints' football facility ... seeing that the two-year sweep of the all Saints' e-mails and computer-generated PowerPoints was OK'd by owner Tom Benson, who helped seal the case against the four suspended players and three coaches and general manager Mickey Loomis by allowing forensics experts to search for incriminating electronic evidence against his employees.

• The ledger sheet from an October 2009 game that showed safety Roman Harper due $1,000 for a "cart-off'' of Giants running back Brandon Jacobs in the second quarter, forcing Jacobs to leave the field for several plays.
"Overwhelming evidence,'' White called what the league showed reporters in a 75-minute presentation.

(snip)

Specious evidence, the attorney for Vilma said in the morning, when lawyer Peter Ginsberg and Vilma walked out of the proceedings. "There is no evidence, because there was no bounty system,'' he said.

Vilma: fire your attorney.

[RedskinsDave]

There was no bounty system. Long live the bounty system.

[akhhorus]

The CBA mandated 3 arb panel has struck down the ruling by Burbank confirming the saints' players suspensions. They aren't in the clear, they have to go back in front of Goodell, who just can't administer the same punishments to them(or he can if there's any new evidence).

EDIT: Goodell can re-suspend them for the same time if he can prove intent to injure.

[RedskinsDave]

This makes as much sense as the Redskins bogus cap penalty.

[Lavar703]

I know he had nothing to do with this but I'm still blaming it on Mara...

[BigCountry]

Originally Posted by Lavar703

I know he had nothing to do with this but I'm still blaming it on Mara...

Watch the new suspensions go into effect when they play the Giants.

[JoeJacksonTaylor28]

I do not like conspiracy theories, but why does everything league related happen against us in the worst time?

Cap penalty 1 day before FA
Suspension of Jackson 1 day before final cuts
Suspension uplifted for W.Smith 2 days before we play them

We've been preparing for a defense without Smith for months, and 2 days before the game you have to adjust for him? Honestly, there should be some kind of x-days notice or something before a decision like this happens.

[justinskins]

Originally Posted by akhhorus

Vilma: fire your attorney.

I'm sure Vilma wishes he'd taken this advice.

[BIGREDSKINSFAN1963]

The NFL can still suspend these guys,they just have to tell them exactly what they are being suspended for and it is something the commish can actually penalize them for under the cba agreement.

[Skaggsrules]

Schefter said that the suspensions were overturned because Godell can suspend for intent to injure, but not pay for performance, because that's a salary cap issue, that he has no jurisdiction over salary cap issues apparently....hmmmmmm

[GeneralDisorder]

Originally Posted by BigCountry

Watch the new suspensions go into effect when they play the Giants.

I'm hearing rumours that "in the interests of parity in the NFL", Mara's about to chair a not-very-independent NFL committee that will propose that "points count double" for anyone playing a team whose name currently rhymes with 'nedskins'...

[hail2skins]

There could be more trouble for the Saints.

http://www.wwltv.com/news/Report-Sai...169094356.html

[Gravy]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...unty-on-favre/