Saints coach Sean Payton and GM Mickey Loomis are “planning to be in New York on Tuesday to have their appeals heard” by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The appeals process is “not expected to take very long,” as the NFL is “going to expedite the hearing ... much like a player appeal during the season for competitive reasons.” Schefter: “Nobody expects that Payton and Loomis are going to have their suspensions overturned, but Payton and Loomis are hoping to get some clarity as to what they are or are not allowed to do during their suspensions” (“SportsCenter,” ESPN, 4/1). In New Orleans, James Varney noted Saints assistant coach Joe Vitt joined Payton and Loomis in their appeal on Friday. The team separately also asked Goodell to “reconsider the punishments he imposed on it.” Goodell in his punishment of the Saints organization stripped the team of second-round draft picks this year and next and gave them a $500,000 fine. There is “no precedent for either the harsh penalties Goodell imposed March 21 or these appeals, and thus it was difficult to gauge what chances the men or the club have of seeing a reduction in their sentences.” Friday's appeals “come at a time Goodell is still mulling the penalties he will impose on players for their part in the scandal.” The NFL said that “22 to 27 Saints defenders were ‘willing and enthusiastic’ participants in the bounty pool, although it has never identified the players other than linebacker Jonathan Vilma and it is unclear how many of that group are still on New Orleans' roster” (New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE, 3/31). USA TODAY’s Robert Klemko writes “barring compelling evidence, it’s unlikely Payton’s year-long ban will be reversed or amended, though he might learn what is allowable in exile” (USA TODAY, 4/2).
PLAYER POSITION: The AP’s Barry Wilner reported the NFLPA told players involved in the Saints' bounty case that “there's a chance they could face criminal charges and it has hired outside counsel to represent" them if needed. The NFLPA also suggested that players “have a lawyer and union representative present when they are interviewed by NFL investigators.” The union “plans to head to New York this week to meet with league security staff and review additional evidence, taking up the NFL on an offer it made more than once” (AP, 4/1). SI.com’s Jim Trotter reported the NFLPA “has accepted the league's invitation to meet [this] week in New York to review additional confidential findings in the bounty scandal.” But a source said that the union “still might not recommend specific discipline for players allegedly involved in the illegal pay-to-injure program, even if there's concrete evidence they were involved.” Trotter noted Goodell “has yet to sanction any players because he wants input” from NFLPA Exec Dir DeMaurice Smith. The union has “talked to some, but not all, of the players allegedly involved.” Goodell has also spoken to players, but the NFLPA on Friday, with the “backing of outside counsel, instructed the league to no longer interview players unless there was a union rep in attendance” (SI.com, 3/31).
FROM HIS VIEWPOINT: Smith said NFL investigators thus far “haven’t turned over anything that we would consider to be direct evidence of player involvement in a ‘pay to injure’ scheme that we could consider for discipline.” Smith, speaking in a Q&A on union website Pro Players Insiders, said, “It’s very hard to have a productive discussion about punishment when one side has kept, to itself, all the information. What I would expect is to have a conversation soon and certainly it would be our expectation that the request for all information, as it relates to particular players, will be provided before any discipline takes place. It’s a very, at least from our perspective, a very unfair situation where you have a number of allegations floating back and forth in the press.” He added, “If there is direct evidence of a ‘pay to injure’ scheme implicating players or anybody involved, we are asking the league to turn over that information” (PROPLAYERSINSIDERS.com, 3/30).
EXAMINING THE ISSUE: In Chicago, Fred Mitchell noted Pro Football HOFer Mike Ditka “does object strongly to the penalties handed down to the Saints.” Ditka said, "I don't know who knew what and what they knew and when they knew it. I think that's the problem. We don't know that. I think the commissioner got pissed off because (Payton) wasn't straight-forward with him, that's all." Ditka said that there is “a longtime, league-wide history of incentives being provided to players for making exceptional plays.” But the incentives were “not to injure an opposing player intentionally” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 3/31). In DC, Tracee Hamilton wrote under the header, “For NFL, Head Injuries Should Be Top-Of-Mind Issue.” Bounty programs are “the easier target; the league has to deal with the broader, long-range implications of the game.” The “bigger risk to the league’s fan base is the increasing distaste many feel about head injuries -- not just from the bounty programs, but also from the cumulative effect of an NFL career on the human brain” (WASHINGTON POST, 3/31).
FITTING THE BILL: ESPN’s Schefter noted former NFL coach and exec Bill Parcells “looks like the leader in the clubhouse” to take over for Payton as Saints coach this season. But before the Saints could hire Parcells, they “would have to be in compliance with the Rooney rule, and they would have to interview a minority coaching candidate” (“SportsCenter,” ESPN, 4/1). In Boston, Greg Bedard wrote Parcells “has to be loving all this attention,” because if he “didn’t, he wouldn’t be talking so much” (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/1).
