Payton: Ducks in a row comment per Florio

Fontenot's point is very well taken. If this commissioner has higher aspirations, then the story needs to be at least considered.

And I also believe that more important principles than the injudicious treatment of a football team are at stake. It's a problem of someone making accusations that--at the very least--have not been evaluated by the legal system and getting away with making them because of the stipulations of a collective bargaining agreement. Most of us on this board believe that the evidence is flimsy. Judging by the comments made by Judge Berrigan, she also thinks the evidence is flimsy and that the commissioner's behavior was reprehensible. But her hands were tied by the CBA. All she could do in her ruling was to take some verbal shots at the commissioner, but she could not allow the defamation suit to proceed. Again, why should a CBA trump fair treatment of individuals?

As I look at the events from the standpoint of a non-lawyer, I maintain that something is terribly wrong with a legal system that allows this to happen. If we "move on" from this, then the outrageous treatment of the Saints will become a drop in the bucket compared to the kind of intimidation and unfair treatment that individuals are likely to receive in the workplace and in life in general.