NFL gave Vilma a sworn affidavit from Gregg Williams stating Vilma offered $10k to knock out Favre (1 Viewer)

[Mr. Sparkle]

Looks like Williams' affidavit was signed immediately following his being served with a subpoena by Vilma's lawyers.

Purely coincidence, I'm sure.

New Orleans Saints -- Jonathan Vilma's rep serves Gregg Williams subpoena, source says - ESPN

 

[insidejob]

So, isn't Williams stating in his sworn affidavit that there was no intent to injure making what "happened" merely a salary cap violation?

 

[TheDeparted]

{mod edit - no issues, just clean up - kd}

So, isn't Williams stating in his sworn affidavit that there was no intent to injure making what "happened" merely a salary cap violation?

It would seem so.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

So, isn't Williams stating in his sworn affidavit that there was no intent to injure making what "happened" merely a salary cap violation?

He's stating the never intended for it to be anything other than clean hits but now believes the players might have taken it farther than he intended.

(And when I say "he", of course, I am referring to the NFL lawyer that drafted it.)

That way, the league can still punish the players, both for a PFP AND for going 'too far' while GW gets to proclaim his relative innocence, and the league gets to use the 'rogue player' defense in the concussion suits.

 

[girlySaint]

Love reading the idiotic comments on this story - these people take Williams' statements as gospel truth, obviously haven't read the affidavit which denies a pay-to-injure program, and just in general continue to be sheep.

PFT: Gregg Williams' career is likely over
Gregg Williams

 

[krushing]

I think some folks are overreacting to comments. Many of us believe this gives the NFL cover from the defermation suit. All they need is a witness to sate that he heard the act and they have a defense against slander. It dosent mean it has to be true or maks Vilma guilty. It does help Goddell defend himself whether we like it or not. Its just a fact andf thats not siding with Goddell or the NFL.

 

[Muleskinnerblues]

And we're all supposed to believe Gregg is "hiking" in Thailand. Judging by his size I'd bet he does more "eating" than "hiking". This is pathetic..

 

[bobdigi]

And we're all supposed to believe Gregg is "hiking" in Thailand. Judging by his size I'd bet he does more "eating" than "hiking". This is pathetic..

Nice!

 

[AgnesT]

As someone posted in the comments section, The NFL is going to picked what it believes in the Gregg Williams' statement. They believe him when he said Vilma offered 10,000 dollars but they don't believe him when he says it was a pay for performance. How can only part of the declaration, not affidavit, be true? I wouldn't believe Greggg Williams or the NFL if they told me water was wet.

 

[InThatNumber]

I haven't read all of the last 30 or 40 pages of this thread, but still wanted to highlight one paragraph (apologies if it's been previously discussed):

I was aware that the pay-for-performance pool violated league rules, including rules about gambling, that it was wrong for me to be administering such a pool, that it was not something that we could allow to become public knowledge, that it would hurt the team and the players and the league if it became public, and it was behavior that was bad for the NFL and the game of football.

If anybody's wondering, that is the paragraph the NFL drafted to support Goodell's forthcoming punishments for "conduct detrimental." It doesn't fit in the rest of the affidavit, the language is pretty clearly not written by the same person that wrote the rest of the affidavit, and it might as well just read that "I was aware that our conduct was detrimental to the NFL."

Also, one other thing to note: If GW really is still overseas, then that affidavit does not comply with the certification requirements for an unsworn statement executed outside of the U.S. and has absolutely no probative value in a U.S. court.

 

[Norwajun]

Have Vilma show his edited bank account statements for the time in question. If there is a withdrawl or other transaction around the 2010 NFC Championship, then that is pretty solid circumstantial evidence to back up the claim. If not, then it works for Vilma.

 

[Muleskinnerblues]

Have Vilma show his edited bank account statements for the time in question. If there is a withdrawl or other transaction around the 2010 NFC Championship, then that is pretty solid circumstantial evidence to back up the claim. If not, then it works for Vilma.

I agree. This^^^^^ would certainly clear Vilma if no large sum of money is withdrawn or no cash advances on any of his credit card accounts then that should pretty much shoot down GW's claim.

 

[DMaestro]

He's stating the never intended for it to be anything other than clean hits but now believes the players might have taken it farther than he intended.

(And when I say "he", of course, I am referring to the NFL lawyer that drafted it.)

That way, the league can still punish the players, both for a PFP AND for going 'too far' while GW gets to proclaim his relative innocence, and the league gets to use the 'rogue player' defense in the concussion suits.

Yeah, you pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Although, considering that this is the same schmuck who was begging his guys to target outside ACLs and such, it's pretty hilarious for Williams to claim that he was a victim of circumstance whose otherwise benign incentives program only got out of hand when the players went feral.

If Ginsburg ever gets him on the stand, he'll turn him into a man-sized pile of quivering Jell-o --- Col. Nathan R. Jessup to the nth degree.

 

[young]

I posted this in the Mike and Mike thread but think it answers a lot of questions in this thread also:

Here are some of the high lights paraphrased from Ginsberg that I hadn't seen or heard before and find very interesting:


Said "We frankly refuted what the commisioner had previously used to justify the discipline. They left the NFL offices and hadn't walked three blocks before the NFL leaked this greg williams affidavit. Had hoped to resolve matters in a professional way.

Mentions that the NFL did not leak the Cerullo affidavit since the two affidavits have a fundamental contradiction. Cerullo's said Vilma held up the 10k for Favre and then Cerullo took the 10k and gave it to Williams. Williams says he never was involved with bounties only PFP, never got 10k doesn't know what happened to it. Ginsburg says the truth is there was no 10k at all. They can present 30 people who were present and will say Vilma never held up 10k and Vilma never provided any kind of incentive to secure any kind of injury to anyone. Also important to note Goodell previously said Vilma put money on Warners head, neither Williams or Cerullo affidavit said that and Goodells public accusation is also fiction.

2 or 3 years ago, one NFL security person spent 10 minutes in New Orleans asked a Saints coach about a bounty system, used the word bounty system. Saints said no bounty system and never has been a bounty system. Ginsburg did say Saints had a PFP system. The only place he had heard of a bounty system was when Williams was at the Redskins. Ginsburg says they have evidence that Gregg Williams put 16k bounty on Brad Johnsons head for a game.

Ginsburg comments that person after person close to Williams have told Ginsburg directly that Williams is petrified that if he doesn't do what Goodell requires him to do he will never get back to coaching. Says Williams affidavit is not accurate and Williams will not speak to Ginsburg is very concerned wether Goodell will ever let him coach again.

 

[MsMSSaintsFan]

I agree. This^^^^^ would certainly clear Vilma if no large sum of money is withdrawn or no cash advances on any of his credit card accounts then that should pretty much shoot down GW's claim.

And the same thing should be done on GW's bank accounts and credit cards since there is that statement that Gregg gave the $10k to Vilma for Vilma to pretend to offer.