NFLPA files grievances over New Orleans Saints players' bounty punishments - NFL News
National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) had vowed to defend New Orleans Saints players suspended by the league in relation to their involvement in the bounty program and on Friday the union filed grievances with arbitrators over the punishments handed down by commissioner, Roger Goodell.
The union filed two grievances in relation to the authority of Goodell to hand down the bounty punishments.
Goodell had earlier in the week announced suspensions for four players who according to the league were heavily involved in the bounty programme put in place by defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams at the Saints.
The commissioner, suspended Saints linebacker, Jonathan Vilma, for the entirety of the 2012-13 season while the Saints defensive end, Will Smith received a four-game suspension.
Goodell also suspended former Saints and now Green Bay Packers defensive end, Anthony Hargrove, and Cleveland Browns, linebacker, Scott Fujita for eight and three games respectively.
All four players will not receive any payment or compensation for the entire duration of their suspensions.
The NFLPA though has a problem with those punishments.
In the first grievance filed with arbitrator, Shyam Das, the union said that according to the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) agreed to by the NFL and the union, Goodell cannot punish players for actions taken before the date of the agreement.
A second grievance states that the NFL’s system arbitrator, Stephen Burbank and not Goodell has the authority to punish players over the bounty programme since the bounties involved on-field conduct, which fall under the authority of Burbank, rather than off-field conduct which falls under the purview of Goodell.
NFL spokesman, Greg Aiello, confirmed the filing of the grievance according to NFL.com on Friday.
"Last night, the NFLPA initiated two arbitration proceedings challenging the suspensions. The proceedings do not challenge the underlying facts, which were first shared with the union more than two months ago after being obtained from Saints executives, coaches, players, and others. The proceedings also do not challenge the reasonableness of the discipline imposed by the commissioner."
It remains to be seen what action will be taken by the arbitrators after the filing of the grievance and more developments over the issue of player punishments are expected in the coming days.
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