Thursday, May 17, 2012

Saints Jonathan Vilma sues the Jolly Roger

Jonathan Vilma
((ht: nola.com))

No, really. He filed it this afternoon.

New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma filed a defamation lawsuit in the eastern division of Federal Court in Louisiana today against NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Mind you, the suit wasn't against the NFL, it was against Goodell himself.

Vilma is claiming that he was damaged by Goodell's statements about the Saints bounty system and his (Vilma's) alleged involvement in it.

The New Orleans Times-Picyune provides us with a copy of said lawsuit, you can read it RIGHT HERE

Alrighty then.

The suit claims more than 9 instances or examples of slander and/or libel that Goodell piled onto Vilma. And if you read to the end, Vilma does not specify the damages that he is looking for, though we suspect if somehow, he or his lawyers are able to get this and/or Goodell to trial, that would be a form of payback.

As you know by now, Vilma is suspended for the 2012 season and according to the league was a leader in the alleged Saints bounty program. That program supposedly established a bounty or payment for plays that seriously injured or put competitors out of the game.

Vilma reiterated his stance on Twitter Thursday saying "As I've said before, I've never paid, nor intended to pay any amount of money to any player for intentionally hurting an opponent.

This is getting interesting. The folks in Louisiana are convinced the league is out to get them. The players vehemently deny it existed. Yet, the coaches admitted it. The league says they have evidence...though they haven't released it.

We suspect that last line (they haven't released it) means that something in there could be considered harmful to the NFL as a whole, but can't prove it.

This is nowhere near the last we've heard about this, it will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

No comments:

Post a Comment