NFL will announce punishments to New Orleans Saints players for bounty scandal, but not this week
The National Football League (NFL) is expected to issue its verdict on the punishments for players involved in the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal soon but it will not come out this week according to commissioner, Roger Goodell.
According to a league report released in early May around 22 to 27 players on the Saints defensive roster were involved in taking bounties for illegal hits and some like defence captain, Jonathan Vilma were named in the report.
Goodell though told the media during a pre-draft event on Wednesday that the league still is conducting investigations and will announce a decision once all evidence has been analysed.
“We're in the final stages of working on the discipline involving the player and we hope to be done very soon to get that behind us,”
Adding further he said.
“We want to complete the work that we've started to make sure we're thorough and fair. I would think that with all we have to do on the draft for the next couple of days, it's not likely.”
The Saints players can expect hefty punishments from the commissioner once he does announce his decision.
Goodell has already fined the franchise $ 500,000 plus revoked its second round draft picks for two seasons.
That was not all as the commissioner suspended head coach, Sean Payton for the entirety of the 2012-13 season for lying to league investigators and doing nothing to stop the bounties which happened under his watch.
He also suspended general manager, Mickey Loomis and assistant coach, Joe Vitt for eight and six games respectively.
Loomis might face more stringent punishment in the coming days after an ESPN report citing sources revealed that the general manager spied on visiting team coaches at home field games from 2002-04 using an electrical device.
Goodell though would not comment much on that and said that he will wait for the Police to complete their investigations.
"The federal authorities are looking into it. We'll wait and see if any credible information comes from that. At that point in time, we could take appropriate action."
The Saints have had a torrid offseason and will hope that nothing else occurs from now to the start of the season to mar the image of the franchise any further.
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