What the heck happens next? Re: Bountygate (1 Viewer)

[saintsfan26]

Dudes and dudettes, what is going to be the outcome of this whole debacle? We have been accused, tried and punished all in the last 3-4 months for crimes we did not commit. We all know the punishments do not fit the crime. We all know we had a pay for performance program. We all know that we have been accused and punished for having a pay to injure program.

I have been a member on Saintsreport.com for over 8 years and in that time i have met some of the most intelligent, loyal and downright amazing people on here. But during those 8 years i can never remember a subject of anything saints related ever literally filling up the entire SuperForum with threads of the same basic subject. Bountygate. Also the people i have met on here are sometimes very opinionated about certain subjects and i never see a subject that literally everybody agrees on. Hell even the Drew Brees threads have arguments in them. But this Bountygate thing has rallied us together. We are all in agreeance with everything. It consumes us. The desire to seek the truth. The desire to clear our names of these ridiculously false accusations.

As a die hard Saints fan of over 25 years i feel like i know this team. I feel like i am a part of this team. I am really starting to get offended by Roger Goodell and the NFL myself. It is almost as if they are attempting to insult our intelligence. Do they think we are dumb? Do they think we will believe their lies? We know this team far better than any of them. How dare they come into our house, make false accusations about us, punish us, and then have the nerve to not show us why they punished us, and then insult our intelligence by using the media to guide the general public against us.

But the thing is, they have had an ulterior motive all along. They are not going to back down from their accusations. They stand by what they said and refuse to budge from their stance. They have too much to lose if they were to give up now. Goodell will continue to abuse his power in this case. If it goes to court, it goes to court. But the lawsuit from this is far less than the lawsuits from 2000 former players. They are willing to sacrifice their pride, dignity and fairness for this case because even if they lose this case it would still give them a boost in their case against the former players. They could just say they were wrong about us but they still made their point that bounties are not tolerated.

So where am i going with this? Oh yeah i forgot.. My point is that i believe this injustice will continue all the way until it goes to court. But the damage will already be done to us. The players suspensions will be upheld. Nothing will change the NFL's stance. No matter how much of their evidence is examined and found to be a joke. No matter how many people bash Goodell and the NFL, it wont matter. They still have an ulterior motive. They dont care about us at all. They dont care what we think. If we take them to court, oh well. This lawsuit is nothing to them.

My friends and fellow who dats, its not just the Saints organization who has been railroaded. The entire Who Dat Nation has been insulted and treated unfairly and unjustly. I am thankful to be around people like you all who have fought and stood up for what is right. Be proud Saints fans. Stand tall and never change who we are. We fight for what is right and we fight for the Black & Gold. We are the Who Dat Nation. Nobody will ever take that away from us.

 

[sykobob671]

The punishments have been handed down, nothing is going to change that.
I suspect further lawsuits will be filed ie; Fujita.
Our reputation is tarnished, but we continue to fight, i am expecting
when all is said and done at the end of the season, Roger will will have more
black eyes over this than our team.

Roger will have to play this hand, up to and including the Super Bowl, he miscalculated badly if he thinks this will go away anytime soon.

The sanctions against the Saints will have little or no bearing on the Concussion lawsuit.
As many have pointed out here, it was the treatment and advice players received
from coaches and doctors that was the problem, not the causal agent, playing football.

Since there is no game film of the Saints hurting anyone, they picked the wrong team
to make their point with anyway. Doesn't add up, IMHO.

I think other fans are beginning to see how out of line Goodell is acting. I hope
the light goes on their collective fandom brains that the same thing could happen to their team or favorite player, just because Roger says so, no proof needed.

Saints fans are now fighting for all teams and players for justification and accountability, as bizarre as that may seem.

Thanks for the post. We will never surrender.

 

[saintsfan26]

Thank you sir excellent post yourself who dat!

 

[0rion]

for me....I really don't expect a whole lot to happen that impacts the team from here on out. It's not like they're going to say "Oh...sorry....everyone can play now". Just sign Drew and let's get the season started.

 

[Buickman]

So where am i going with this? Oh yeah i forgot.. My point is that i believe this injustice will continue all the way until it goes to court.

You see, this is where the pessimist in me kicks in. I'd put money down that says that at the end of this week when the players don't get back to the NFL, that Rog is gonna slam a rubber stamp down that says "CASE CLOSED" and DESTROY all of the so-called evidence, re: SPYGATE.

Then, when it does get to court, he'll tell the judge they did it to protect the whistleblowers. That's when it'll become a case of their word against the players.

I dunno. I can easily see this happening.

 

[saints15]

You see, this is where the pessimist in me kicks in. I'd put money down that says that at the end of this week when the players don't get back to the NFL, that Rog is gonna slam a rubber stamp down that says "CASE CLOSED" and DESTROY all of the so-called evidence, re: SPYGATE.

Then, when it does get to court, he'll tell the judge they did it to protect the whistleblowers. That's when it'll become a case of their word against the players.

I dunno. I can easily see this happening.

Agreed. However, with the pending defamation case of Vilma's couldn't that be considered a felony?

 

[Madmarsha]

I have a question. Is anyone here embarrassed to be a Saints fan? I admit when this first broke, I thought, oh, no, it's going to be hard to defend this. But now, I think I'm even more glad I'm a Saints fan because something of this size would topple every single other team in this league.

Every other team (with the slight possible exception of the Patriots who have been through something, too) would implode under the weight of these "distractions". But this team -- even while missing our two top fearless leaders, Brees and Payton -- has shown no signs of doing anything but becoming a Band of Brothers. (Oh, there we go with the military analogies again. My bad).

There's going to be a lot of meatheads that are going to bait Saints fans; but this team really IS made up of what we've been saying all along and when all is said and done, this could turn out to be their finest hour.

 

[NCSaint]

I think you have to separate the team and fans on this.

I believe what the team is saying and that is they have put it behind them. Don't want to waste precious time and effort on it. See Kooldaks Jenkins post where he says this again.

We the fans will continue to burn over this for a long time. We have been singled out and the league over reacted in a wreckless way. We are angry and rightfully so but unfortunately there is no place or way to make this wrong be righted. So we slow burn over and over. At least I do.

Hopefully the appeals work in our favor, Goodell gets canned, ESPN gets slapped somehow. But not holding my breath on any of this to occur.

 

[superchuck500]

Agreed. However, with the pending defamation case of Vilma's couldn't that be considered a felony?

I'm not sure if it would be a felony - but at a minimum it would allow Vilma a presumption in the defamation trial that every piece of evidence destroyed was favorable to Vilma. And it would definitely anger the judge. Certainly the league's lawyers are advising Goodell that with a pending lawsuit, he can't destroy evidence.

Of course all of this presumes Vilma's suit won't be dismissed.

 

[Madmarsha]

Hopefully the appeals work in our favor, Goodell gets canned, ESPN gets slapped somehow. But not holding my breath on any of this to occur

Yeah, none of these things will happen. However, IF enough light could be shed on how shoddy of an investigation the NFL did that led to every media outlet being incited to call the Saints everything short of baby killers, there MAY be enough pressure on Goodell because of him relying on the flimsy investigation tactics for him to step down. Nobody likes feeling duped and that's exactly what happened to the media. They were sold a false bill of goods, tho, unfortunately most don't realize it yet.

It probably won't get to that point, tho, unless it happens again where Goodell has been seen to rely on his people with some ridiculous explanations of what certain pieces of evidence or videos say.