(Image source: New Orleans Times-Picayune)

 

 

BY HANK KOEBLER

 

Alleged evidence has emerged in the New Orleans Saints’ “bounty” scandal, but it provides more questions than answers. WAFB has some of the details:

“A person familiar with the investigation has come forward saying league officials have a ledger outlining cash payouts of up to a thousand dollars for plays such as ‘cart-offs’ and ‘whacks.’”

Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma was suspended a year for his role in the scandal and is suing NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for defamation, so the ledger could be presented and examined in court. WVUE has the reaction from Vilma’s attorney Peter Ginsberg:

“Ginsberg says the commissioner interviewed the person who kept the ledger and knows those ‘whacks’ and ‘cart-offs’ are regrettably named but nonetheless are descriptions of good, clean, legal plays.”

Ginsberg’s claim – that the Saints paid for big plays and not for injuries – is at the core of the scandal. Yahoo! Sports published the initial report, claiming:

“In a game against the New York Giants on Oct. 18, there was a $1,000 bounty awarded for one cart-off. In a game against the Carolina Panthers on Nov. 8, 2009, there were three $1,000 awards.”

The Yahoo! report originally claimed the bounties occurred in a game against the Buffalo Bills, but Yahoo! issued a correction and changed it to say it happened in the Panthers game. Vilma posted a tweet mocking the report’s initial inaccuracy, saying:

I've been asking the nfl for evidence for 2mos and got nothin but somehow a ledger gets "leaked"...and the leak was wrong! lol I love it

A Saints blogger re-watched the Panthers-Saints game in question and found that only one injury occurred during the game, calling the Yahoo! report’s accuracy into question. The blogger says this suggests the payments were simply for making good plays:

“IF the ledger is real, and IF it details 3 1,000-dollar payouts in the Carolina game, it’s clear that they weren’t for cart-offs or knockouts or whatever else you want to call them.  There were ‘payable’ big plays, but nothing as sinister as the league would have you believe.”

Vilma linked to the blog on his Twitter page, highlighting that even the Yahoo! report’s correction was incorrect.

A writer for the Times-Picayune says if the league has such a strong case that Vilma and other players paid for injuries, it should make its evidence public.

“I don’t understand why the league would keep such evidence private, since it would help to erase the doubt and skepticism surrounding the league’s investigation. But if the league is at least willing to share this evidence with the suspended players during the appeals process, that’s a good start.”

So far the NFL has not issued a statement in response to the ledger leak.