Appeals Panel Overturns Bounty Suspensions

An internal appeals panel reviewed the current suspensions that were handed down to New Orleans Saints defenders by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as part of the league’s review of the bounty scandal which hit the team early in the offseason. So what that means is that Jonathan Vilma, Anthony Hargrove, Scott Fujita and Will Smith have been reinstated by the NFL. Vilma took to Twitter to express his happiness.

The ball is now back in Goodell’s court and he has the ability to hand out new punishment. However, it is unlikely that any review would come before Week 1. The NFL has also announced that it will honor the decision by the appeals panel.

“Consistent with the panel’s decision, Commissioner Goodell will, as directed, make an expedited determination of the discipline imposed for violating the league’s pay-for-performance/bounty rule,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said.  “Until that determination is made, the four players are reinstated and eligible to play starting this weekend.”

For those who don’t understand exactly what the ruling means, here is a simple breakdown from NFL.com’s Albert Breer on the situation:

"A nutshell explanation — NFLPA argued this should be regarded as a salary cap violation; NFL said it was under “conduct detrimental.” Pay-for-performance is salary cap, pay-to-injure is conduct detrimental. Cap penalties go to Burbank on appeal. Conduct goes to commish. Goodell does have the power simply go back, say “thanks appeals panel, I suspended them on pay-to-injure all along” and uphold suspensions.  The important piece here is if Goodell does suspended the four Saints again, this time, is HAS to be specifically for pay-to-injure."

That’s where Goodell is in a tough spot. He has never been able to fully prove that the players received compensation for injuring a player. For now, Goodell is back to square one and this is a big win for the Saints and their formerly suspended players.