Former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue has overturned the suspensions for the Saints players (Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith, Scott Fujita, and free agent Anthony Hargrove) that were involved in the bounty scandal.
“Unlike Saints’ broad organizational misconduct, player appeals involve sharply focused issues of alleged individual player misconduct in several different aspects,” said Tagliabue in a released statement. “My affirmation of Commissioner Goodell’s findings could certainly justify the issuance of fines. However, this entire case has been contaminated by the coaches and others in the Saints’ organization.”
Tagliabue believes that Jonathan Vilma did in fact have a bounty on Brett Favre during the 2009 NFC championship game, but believes that the Saints coaching staff and organization were ultimately responsible for creating the situation.
It looks like Tagliabue did his best to not side with a particular side. Hopefully this will be the last we hear of the situation as the topic has grown quite tiresome.
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