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June 01, 2012|Reuters
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012 ... ean-payton
The NFL has a copy of a "ledger" that details week by week earnings of New Orleans Saints players involving the team's bounty system.
The ledger shows money paid for "cart-offs" and "whacks" and deductions for "mental errors," as well as pointing to players being told of their weekly performances, according to Yahoo! Sports.
Sources told Yahoo! Sports that the NFL showed portions of the ledger during meetings with some of those who have been investigated in the scandal.
"The players clearly knew what was going on each week with the payments," a source told Yahoo! Sports.
Sources also said that Saints defensive players would routinely encourage teammates to put money earned from the bounty system back into the pool. Those sorts of cash payments violate NFL rules.
NFL Players Association spokesman George Atallah wrote in a text massage to Yahoo!Sports that the league mentioned the ledger in a meeting with the union in April, but that the NFLPA had not seen the ledger yet.
"I guess it either qualifies as evidence, which means fair due process was violated because (the) players didn't get to see it before they were punished or it is not hard evidence because they didn't get to see it and cross examine the validity of that piece of evidence," Atallah wrote.
Also Friday, ESPN.com reported that filmmaker Sean Pamphilon said that he was encouraged by former New Orleans linebacker Scott Fujita and quarterback Drew Brees to release an audio recording of former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams telling players to hurt San Francisco 49ers players in a playoff game last season.
"Scott reassures me soon thereafter that Drew Brees agrees with the NFLPA lawyers that the audio should be released 'sooner the better,' " Pamphilon wrote on his website.
Pamphilon had access to the Saints last season as he worked on a documentary with former Saints special teams player Steve Gleason, who has been diagnosed with ALS.
He said he went public after the league announced it was investigating the Saints in March.
Williams has been suspended indefinitely, Saints coach Asshole Face and linebacker Jonathan Vilma for a year, former Saints defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove (now with the Green Bay Packers) for eight games and defensive end Will Smith four games.
Fujita, now with the Cleveland Browns, has publicly denied that a bounty system exists. Vilma has also denied involvement and has filed a defamation lawsuit against NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
