New Orleans Saints LB Jonathan Vilma wants commissioner Roger Goodell to quickly deliver bounty verdict
New Orleans Saints suspended linebacker and defence captain, Jonathan Vilma, seems set to be gearing up for another battle with National Football League (NFL) commissioner, Roger Goodell.
Vilma walked out of the appeal hearings on Monday with his lawyer, Peter Ginsberg and does not seem to hold out any hope that Goodell would shorten or overturn his season long suspension from the game due to the bounty scandal.
Goodell had in early March suspended four Saints players including Vilma for their leading roles in implementing the bounty programme at the franchise during 2009-11, on the back of evidence collected by the NFL.
Vilma has stringently denied all the allegations and even filed a lawsuit against the commissioner for defamation in a New Orleans Court.
Now he is looking to take his battle with Goodell to another level and wants the commissioner to quickly announce his decision on the appeals filed by the players so that he can begin what he calls “Phase 2”.
In tweet from his official Twitter account, Vilma posted.
What's this guy waiting on? Make your ruling so we can get on with phase 2 already
- Jonathan Vilma (@JonVilma51) June 25, 2012.
Phase 2 will likely entail Vilma and the other players taking his case to court, challenging the authority of Goodell to lay down the punishments in the bounty scandal as well as gain access to the entirety of the evidence found by the NFL investigators.
They would also be call up witnesses to court that they did not have access to earlier.
Green Bay Packers defensive end, Anthony Hargrove, New Orleans Saints defensive end, Will Smith, and Cleveland Browns linebacker, Scott Fujita were the rest of the players suspended by Goodell for eight, four and three games respectively.
Fujita and Hargrove played for the Saints previously.
The Saints were alleged to have run a bounty programme in their defensive roster from 2009-11 under the guidance of former defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams.
Allegations against Vilma include a $ 10,000 bounty placed on quarterback Brett Favre during the Saints 2009 National Football Conference (NFC) Championship game between the Saints and Minnesota Vikings.
It remains to be seen what decision the commissioner will reach but it is unlikely that any of the suspensions handed down will be reduced or overturned.
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