FILE - This May 22, 2012 file photo shows NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell during a new conference in Atlanta. More than nine months after the NFL first disclosed its bounty investigation of the New Orleans Saints, four players will finally get a ruling, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012, on whether their initial suspensions are upheld, reduced or thrown out. If the players get the ruling they seek, it would discredit an NFL probe, Goodell, that covered three seasons and gathered about 50,000 pages of documents. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
Player suspensions tossed out in bounty case
FILE - This May 22, 2012 file photo shows NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell during a new conference in Atlanta. More than nine months after the NFL first disclosed its bounty investigation of the New Orleans Saints, four players will finally get a ruling, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012, on whether their initial suspensions are upheld, reduced or thrown out. If the players get the ruling they seek, it would discredit an NFL probe, Goodell, that covered three seasons and gathered about 50,000 pages of documents. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
By BRETT MARTEL
AP Sports Writer /
December 12, 2012
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The NFL also concluded that Hargrove lied to NFL investigators to help cover up the program. The players have from the beginning denied they ever took the field intending to injure opponents, while Hargrove has said he never lied about a bounty program, because there wasn’t one.
Goodell suspended Gregg Williams indefinitely, while banning Saints head coach Sean Payton for a full season.
Tagliabue’s ruling comes after a new round of hearings that for the first time allowed Vilma’s attorneys and the NFLPA, which represents the other three players, to cross-examine key NFL witnesses. Those witnesses included Williams and former Saints assistant Mike Cerullo, who was fired after the 2009 season and whose email to the league, accusing the Saints of being ‘‘a dirty organization,’’ jump-started the probe.
Smith said he was pleased that Tagliabue vacated his suspension.
‘‘I continue to maintain that I did not participate in a pay-to-injure program or facilitate any such program,’’ he added. ‘‘I appreciate that Mr. Tagliabue did not rush to judgment, taking into consideration all facts presented to him, before ruling — something that was clearly not done by Commissioner Goodell in previous hearings.’’
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