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Well, 50,000 pages of evidence turned into 200 pages of things the League wished to share. Of those 200, some were funny, some weird and some were dumb, but only a few of them pertain to the matter at hand.
1. Typed transcriptions of hand written notes of amounts players and coaches apparently pledged, variously to, a kitty or general pool, a QB out pool and a Pick 6. So some amounts were for plays, some for hits and some for targeting players/positions. However, the handwritten notes were not produced, meaning the source material cannot be judged and no one can cross examine the writer or interviewee.
As an example of the trouble this can cause, Joe Vitt (current Saints HC) is down on these transcriptions for $5.000 for the QB Out pool. But his lawyer has publicly stated that the League has never confronted Vitt about this pledge nor was his discipline based on this pledge. So did the League ignore it, or does it not believe its own transcription?
Vilma is suspended one year for a $10,000 pledge to knock out the QB. Shouldn't Vitt be gone longer if this document is to be believed?
2. Hargrove is going to miss time. His initial interview was a fabrication, even if it does appear likely it was encouraged by the coaches. They also have the tape of his saying to Bobby McCray, "Hey Bobby, give me my money" after Favre was knocked out of the game.
The video was in the information showed to the players and media, but his declaration from earlier this year was not included.
3. Florio says that the bulk of the material provides compelling evidence of an illegal pay for performance scheme (less than bounty and more organized than Best Buy cards or holding Adrian Peterson under a 100 yards, etc.) but that the evidence about planning and paying for injuries really comes down to those handwritten notes and the Hargrove tape.
The tape could be explained away as both bravado and an admission about player knowledge of a pay for performance system. The notes, if corroborated, would be damning.
But Vilma is maintaining he never pledged money to any system that paid for injuries. And Vitt is going to be walking the Saints sidelines this year while Vilma sits or is in court with the NFL. So the NFL will be asked to explain why it doubts some evidence and not others.
D coaches talk about cutting the head off all the time (Fritz Shurmur used that metaphor) but combining it with a dollar figure will probably be enough to keep the coaches and players on the sideline. The NFL holds all the cards and players are going to need to convince the Court system to intervene in a closed system. But I think the NFL needs to explain Vitt vs. Vilma regardless.
~ From Pro Football Talk, Peter King and Adam Schefter's Twitter feed.
~~ Yes, I stole that thread title from somewhere.
1. Typed transcriptions of hand written notes of amounts players and coaches apparently pledged, variously to, a kitty or general pool, a QB out pool and a Pick 6. So some amounts were for plays, some for hits and some for targeting players/positions. However, the handwritten notes were not produced, meaning the source material cannot be judged and no one can cross examine the writer or interviewee.
As an example of the trouble this can cause, Joe Vitt (current Saints HC) is down on these transcriptions for $5.000 for the QB Out pool. But his lawyer has publicly stated that the League has never confronted Vitt about this pledge nor was his discipline based on this pledge. So did the League ignore it, or does it not believe its own transcription?
Vilma is suspended one year for a $10,000 pledge to knock out the QB. Shouldn't Vitt be gone longer if this document is to be believed?
2. Hargrove is going to miss time. His initial interview was a fabrication, even if it does appear likely it was encouraged by the coaches. They also have the tape of his saying to Bobby McCray, "Hey Bobby, give me my money" after Favre was knocked out of the game.
The video was in the information showed to the players and media, but his declaration from earlier this year was not included.
3. Florio says that the bulk of the material provides compelling evidence of an illegal pay for performance scheme (less than bounty and more organized than Best Buy cards or holding Adrian Peterson under a 100 yards, etc.) but that the evidence about planning and paying for injuries really comes down to those handwritten notes and the Hargrove tape.
The tape could be explained away as both bravado and an admission about player knowledge of a pay for performance system. The notes, if corroborated, would be damning.
But Vilma is maintaining he never pledged money to any system that paid for injuries. And Vitt is going to be walking the Saints sidelines this year while Vilma sits or is in court with the NFL. So the NFL will be asked to explain why it doubts some evidence and not others.
D coaches talk about cutting the head off all the time (Fritz Shurmur used that metaphor) but combining it with a dollar figure will probably be enough to keep the coaches and players on the sideline. The NFL holds all the cards and players are going to need to convince the Court system to intervene in a closed system. But I think the NFL needs to explain Vitt vs. Vilma regardless.
~ From Pro Football Talk, Peter King and Adam Schefter's Twitter feed.
~~ Yes, I stole that thread title from somewhere.
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