The New Orleans "Bounty" Saints are out of their minds. Former safety Darrin Sharper was on a soap box for months claiming the bounty claims were false. He kept pleading his former team's innocence while a lineup of Gregg Williams, Sean Payton, Mickey Loomis and Joe Vitt admitted the whole bounty program happened. The clowns that run the team admitted that they had a bounty program. For three years! I don't understand how anyone can deny it at this point. I thought that Sharper was nuts but now linebacker Jonathan Vilma has taken the craziness even further. I never would have thought that was possible. He's suing NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for slander and libel. Vilma filed his lawsuit this week in the U.S. District Court in Louisiana. He's accusing Goodell of injury to his professional and personal reputation, accusations of criminal conduct and infliction of emotional distress. It's just my opinion but Vilma trashed his reputation by being part of the Saints bounty system. He did that to himself. It even looks like he was the leader of the bounty program among the players. In his suit, Vilma claims that he neither "embraced" nor "participated" in a bounty program. If he played for the Saints over the past years (he did) he most certainly participated. According to Goodell and the investigators Vilma completely embraced the bounties. It's been reported that Vilma offered $10,000 to any player that knocked Brett Favre out of the 2009 NFC Championship game. In his lawsuit, Vilma claims that he never paid, or intended to pay, any player to knock out Favre. He never says that he didn't offer the money. That offer landed him a one year ban. Now, Goodell really needs to hand over all of the evidence against the Saints. If to no one else, he needs to hand it over to the NFLPA.
This lawsuit just seems ridiculous. It looks like a childish reaction to being caught doing something very wrong. The Saints really need to suck it up and shup up. They were caught. They should feel fortunate that they still have that Lombardi Trophy.
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