NFL Upholds Jonathan Vilma Suspension, Reduces Penalty for Fujita and Hargrove
By Josh Hill
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has made his decision today regarding the fates of four suspended players due to their involvement with the now infamous bounty-gate scandal.
The most vocal member of the group, linebacker Jonathan Vilma, saw his suspension of an entire season upheld today — well sort of. Despite a court “ruling” that Goodell acted outside his jurisdiction when he suspended Vilma for a whole season, Vilma won’t be able to return to his team once he comes off the PUP list after the Saints bye week.
Instead, Goodell is reducing Vilma’s suspension to 11 games and is crediting the first six that Vilma missed as games he could have played. Since Vilma was on the PUP list for those games, the year long suspension basically stands in theory but Goodell announced that Vilma will receive a game check for the games he spent on the PUP list.
As for the other three members suspended, two of them saw their suspensions reduced. As Chris Mortensen reported as the news was being released, Browns linebacker Scott Fujita had his suspension reduced from 3 games to 1 and Anthony Hargrove saw his suspension go from 8 games to 7.
However, Saints lineman Will Smith was the only member of the “Hit Squad” to not see his suspension reduced, which puzzled some in the writing community.
Given that Scott Fujita and Will Smith allegedly did the same thing, decision to cut one suspension but not the other is odd.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) October 9, 2012
These reduced suspensions are really only about money, as Fujita’s suspension expired a while ago and Smith’s expired last week. Basically all the reduction rhetoric really means is those players are now receiving game checks for the games their suspensions were reduced, where as prior to this they were forfeiting all pay for those games.
This also pretty much marks the conclusion of the whole bounty-gate scandal. Jonathan Vilma is still going after Roger Goodell, but for the most part this is the last we will hear of the scandal on the Bayou — at least in this context. The NFLPA isn’t an organization that likes to be bullied around and this whole scandal is a sticking point for them. This stopped being about the illegal hits a long time ago and has become, and will continue to be, about the tension between the players and the people who pay them.
But this is America, what else is new?