Goodell Fail: BountyGate

[Stranger]

@SportsLawGuy

Burbank appeals panel has VACATED suspensions of the Bounty 4.

@SportsLawGuy

RT @AlbertBreer NFL has reinstated Jonathan Vilma, Anthony Hargrove, Scott Fujita and Will Smith for this weekend's games.

 

[Stranger]

What a PR nightmare for the NFL and Goodell...

@SportsLawGuy

NFL options now? Challenge decision in court (unlikely);hold another hearing & punish players again. Punish players again w/o hearing.

 

[Stranger]

And here is where the case now rides, at least as far as appeals panel is concerned. As I understand it right now, as I get caught-up on the latest reports, this did NOT come from Judge, but from within NFL appeals process. Hence, it looks like appeals panel agreed that this matter is within the domain of Goodell, and therefore are sending it back to him.

@SportsLawGuy

PA argued this was pay-for-performance w/in exclusive jurisdiction of system arbitrator. NFL argued this was pay-to-injure in exclusive jurisdiction of RG.

 

[Stranger]

Here's more on this...

@SportsLawGuy

Appeals panel held this was some of both, but commish is only allowed to punish for the pay/agree-to-injure part of the scheme

@SportsLawGuy

Panel vacated commish's decision but remanded it directly back to him for "expeditious redetermination." Again, players not out of woods yet

 

[Stranger]

@SportsLawGuy

Appeals panel has vacated suspensions of Bounty 4 and remanded case back to commish for a redetermination of appropriate penalties

@SportsLawGuy

Panel finds that bounty conduct both constituted payment in violation of CBA and payment with intent to injure other players.

@SportsLawGuy

Commish only has jurisdiction to punish for the "intent to injure" part of the misconduct so must reconsider case.

@SportsLawGuy

Bounty-4 aren't out of woods yet. Commish still has another chance to impose discipline, though case is certainly ripe for settlement now.

 

[Stranger]

-- moved contents of this post to the top of thread ---

 

[Stranger]

More on the options for the NFL...

@SportsLawGuy

Interesting spot for NFL. RG can simply maintain same penalties by saying discipline was solely for agreement-to-injure scheme.

@SportsLawGuy

Or RG can reduce suspension based on new evidence that has come to light. Or hold another hearing.

 

[Stranger]

And probably the most important factor is that the Judge is still considering the matter.

@SportsLawGuy

Remember-- this case is still pending before Judge Berrigan. Players can head back to court if unhappy w/ result of redetermination.

@SportsLawGuy

All of the uncertainty makes the case ripe for settlement,but question remains whether players will accept anything less than no suspension.

 

[Stranger]

@SportsLawGuy

To sum up: Panel held this involved "conduct detrimental" & illegal payments. Commish only has power to punish for conduct detrimental.

@SportsLawGuy

So, Judge Berrigan will wait while the Bounty case heads back to Goodell for a redetermination.After RG re-rules, could end up back in court

 

[Thordaddy]

Aw gee I man excuse me for interfering with this argument/ discussion with yourself,I expected you to be prominent in this thread ,but was surprised to find you were the only participant.

I waited a few days on this cuz I wanted to sort out exactly why this disappointed me and I guess it comes down to this, I'm a football fan,believe that the game is in peril from numerous law suits and that the laissez faire attitude towards injury has been two fold.
There are two types of injuries encountered on the football field, the unavoidable that are just going to happen when bodies crash against one another and the ones that come from dirty play.

The later has long been tolerated wrongfully so and MOSTLY because bad actors tend to be effective on the field so teams themselves can't afford to police it without surrendering the opportunity to win. It was the flaw in the "four pillars" ,it amounts to a form of unilateral disarmament by a team and you may be great to have at church picnics but you won't win big nor long term especially when there are teams that will tolerate even become havens for the bad boys like the Raiders were.

It's just logical for the league to police this stuff in order to assure competition isn't skewed by surrendering to the Dez Bryants and Lawrence Phillips' (maybe LP isn't a good example cuz he was a thug AND he sucked).

The game needs to be cleaned up or it won't survive as we know it,I DON'T think it was in any way proven that what Goodel suspended these guys for was conjured ,just that lawyers can bend words to force procedural alteration.

Further I don't think it's QUITE the PR nightmare you envision, the lack of participation in this thread indicates to me that MOST football fans on this board and I project it to the body of fans at large support at least the spirit of what Goodel is trying to do.

 

[Stranger]

My sequential posts in this thread was my way of publishing the information as I was reading it, to create a mini-story of what was going down. I'm not to blame for no one else jumping-in to the discussion.

Further I don't think it's QUITE the PR nightmare you envision, the lack of participation in this thread indicates to me that MOST football fans on this board and I project it to the body of fans at large support at least the spirit of what Goodel is trying to do.

While efforts to increase player safety are certainly admirable, in this case the NFL did NOT follow the procedures stipulated within the newly negotiated CBA. If anyone was bending anything, it was the NFL's lawyers, Goodell, and the Saints disgruntled coach who started this whole charade rolling in an effort to get some "payback".

I can't imagine anyone here wanting anyone else to go thru such an unfair and damaging process. Just read my earlier posts here on the matter in order to see what the Judge has said so far, she was disgusted by the NFL's abuses, and then read the NFL lawyer's responses, which were arrogant beyond belief.

Whatever "truth" there was in this case has been totally steamrolled by an NFL corporate attitude of total power and control over players and coaches. If the NFL's lawyer's would have handled this matter responsibly, then perhaps there may have been some meaningful outcome that would achieve your goal of increased players safety, but now it's just become a display of outrageous overstepping by Goodell.