Bountygate CliffsNotes (Long)

[Continued from above]

9. In March the NFL claimed it had reviewed 50,000 pages of documents. However when the NFL was legally forced to show their cards on June 15th, the NFL could only produce 200 pages (.4% of what they claimed they had) and of those 200 pages 31 did not even exist when the NFL originally levied the Bountygate allegations. They didn't exist when the NFL punished the coaches in late March and they didn't exist when the NFL punished the players in early May. And the majority of those 200 pages contained information completely unrelated to the Bounty allegations. Items such as checklists of attendance during practices and training, prepatory notes for the players' weekly schedule (diet, hydration, and hygiene reminders), opponent tendencies, positional alignments, and presentation slides lampooning former Saints Mike Karney, Marc Bulger, and Jake Delhomme. The report did include player terminology such as 'ME – mental error', 'loaf', 'cart-off', 'kill the head', 'whack', and 'impact play'. However the NFL did not specify what these terms meant and if they were part of the alleged bounty program. It is assumed that this was a willful ignorance strategy by the NFL so that they could infuse those terms with a sinister spin that wasn't factually accurate. None of the slides containing these terms were every presented to the Saints coaches for an explanation/definition by NFL investigators. Since the NFL failed to ascertain the meaning of these terms, the NFLPA conducted it's own investigation and discovered the following:

Cart-Off: a hard hit. It does not literally mean that a player was carted off the field. Coaches and players may use the terms 'Knockout', 'Tapout', 'Blowups' or 'Hit Parade to describe the same type of play.

Whack: The best way for a small tackler to take on a larger playerl it is more commonly called a 'Cross-body Tackle.” Saints players were oft times undersized and Coach Williams used this term to try to improve tackling technique.

Kill The Head: Part of Coach Williams' “defend ever blade of grass” strategy..Its strategy was to get RBs and WRs to mentally vacate the game. The logic is that if you allowed RBs and Wrs to run straight at you and successfully penetrate your defense, then you would basically validate their superiority. You would by default present a passive approach to defense. The result of this would be catastrophic to any defensive game plan.

Impact Play: A 4th quarter play when the game is on the line. Usually with less than 2 possessions left. It could be any number of plays, whether it be a great tackle, interception, or a pass breakup. It could be a team effort like a strategic stop that denies the offensive yardage or touchdowns.

ME: Refers to “mental error,” failing to perform as coached or diverting from a game plan, For example, losing focus and behaving in an automatic manner that is contrary to what the team scheme is.

Loaf: When Coach Williams arrived in New Orleans, he wanted to make clear exactly what he wanted in the form of effort. So this was a way for Coach Williams to teach and measure effort.

MOBP: A “Missed Opportunity for Big Play”. For example, a pass breakup but missed interception, or a sack but missed strip. It an opportunity loss.

Nowhere did the above information indicate an intent to injure, or to reward for injuries inflicted. Also missing from their Appeals Hearings exhibits were The Anthony Hargrove Declaration, The Bounty Ledger, Proof of a bounty on Kurt Warner (which the NFL punished Jonathan Vilma for), and any witnesses.

10. Greg Williams signed declaration: Exactly a week after the Appeals panel overturned the players suspensions, the NFL secured a signed declaration from Williams. This supposed key document did not come into existence until 6 months after the Bountygate scandal started. If Williams' testimony was so important to the NFL why was it not on record until 6 months after the fact? Speculation is that the NFL coerced it from Williams in exchange for his reinstatement to the NFL the following season.

11. Goodell originally suspended Saints LB Scott Fujita for 3 games...which he then reduced to 1. His punishment was based on a statement by Goodell that Fujita should've dissolved the program while he was still a Saint...but because he didn't then it continued to operate n 2010 and 2011...when Fujita wasn't even on the team. Tagliabue later completely exonerated Fujita from any wrong doing.

12. Closing Arguments:

• Many of the NFL's accusations and intimations were ultimately unsubstantiated and untrue
  
• The NFL failed to discipline and of the Saints' players for any on-field misconduct as a result of the Bountygate allegations
  
• The Saints injured fewer players than all but one other team during the time frame Goodell accused them of operating an injury program.
  
• Joe Vitt, Jonathan Vilma, and six other Saints players testified under oath in federal court that Vilma, nor anyone else pledged a bounty on Brett Favre. The NFL, on the other hand, produced no witness who testified under oath in court that a bounty in fact existed. Paul Tagliabue,after reviewing the entirety of the evidence, still failed to establish the legitimacy of the alleged Favre scandal.
  
• A three person panel consisting of two retired judges and one law professor unanimously ruled that Roger Goodell violated the collective bargaining agreement.
  
• A federal judge repeatedly criticized Goodell's actions for their “fundamental lack of due process”
  
• Paul Tagliabue permanently voided the discipline levied on the accused players, and further refused to issue any amended actions whatsoever.
  
• In 1997 ESPN did a segment on the Green Bay Packers incentive program called 'Smash4Cash'. The rules were that the players used their own money, the amounts were not exorbitant, and the payments were not for illegal hits. Tagliabue and the NFL exonerated the Packers from any wrongdoing at the time.
  
• In the 2011 NFC Championship game between the Giants and the 49ers, the Giants publicly expressed their desire to target a player concussed four times previously (Kyle Williams) – to “take him out of the game.” However, all that mattered to the NFL was what happened on the field. When the NFL found no on-field misconduct on the part of the Giants, they deemed the words meaningless and thus unworthy of discipline.

13. Vikings Bounty Program:

On September 8, 2008, a year before Brett Favre would join the organization, the Minnesota Vikings traveled to Lambeau Field to face the Green Bay Packers. Aside from being Aaron Rodgers’s debut as a starter, the game was noteworthy for its physicality and aggressiveness. In the first half alone, the teams combined for 12 penalties for 86 yards. It was a sloppy, messy, nasty affair, and in the days and weeks following the Packers’ 24–19 win, Minnesota’s coaches stewed. After watching the tape, they were convinced that Nick Barnett, Green Bay’s outstanding linebacker, had gone out of his way to injure Adrian Peterson, the Vikings halfback.

The rival franchises played again nine weeks later, and three days before kickoff a Minnesota coach stood up in a team meeting, mentioned Barnett by name, and said, “I will give $500 to anyone who takes this mother****er out of the game.”

This was hardly a shocking move in the Vikings’ locker room, where piles of money were regularly collected—then distributed as rewards—for injuring opposing stars. “It was part of the culture,” said Artis Hicks, a Minnesota offensive lineman. “I had coaches start a pot and all the veterans put in an extra $100, $200, and if you hurt someone special, you get the money. There was a bottom line, and I think we all bought in: you’re there to win, and if taking out the other team’s best player helps you win, hey, it’s nothing personal. Just business.”

Although the Barnett affair occurred in 2008, Hicks insists the Vikings were no different a year later, when Brett Favre was quarterback. He recalled no one on the team complaining, nobody arguing with the approach. “This isn’t a game or culture for the fainthearted,” Hicks said. “You bleed, you suffer, you sacrifice, and if need be, you try and knock people out. It’s the NFL.”

Following the win over Dallas, the Vikings weren’t thinking about injuring opposing players, or taking someone out. That type of talk was often reserved for meetings with the league’s more aggressive teams; black-and-blue franchises like Green Bay, Chicago, and Pittsburgh.