NFL: Before final game, Gregg Williams urged Saints to injure 49ers

[AsylumGuido]

I have another article which should clear up some of the erroneous thinking. This is by Jeff Duncan of the Times-Picayune. Several of you have commented very favorably on his works that I have linked here before. I can verify he has been very straight forward and professional throughout this whole ordeal. He seldom holds any punches when it comes to the Saints.

Blowing the whistle on the bounty whistleblower is a waste of time

Quote:ORIGIN/BACKGROUND: The initial probe began in 2010 after the Minnesota Vikings alleged the Saints had a bounty program for their NFC playoff games against the Arizona Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings, according to Peter King's March 12 Sports Illustrated story. Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, linebackers coach Joe Vitt and defensive tackle Anthony Hargrove were interviewed by NFL investigators, according to the SI story. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league interviewed "numerous players and other individuals" and at the time everyone "interviewed denied that any such program existed." Goodell also seemed to indicate that the initial whistleblower was a single player, saying "the player that made the allegation retracted his earlier assertions."

The case was reopened late in the 2011 season after the received what it called "significant and credible new information" that suggested there was indeed a "bounty" program in place. League officials notified Saints owner Tom Benson of their findings just before the Saints' NFC playoff game against the Detroit Lions on Jan. 7. The investigation continued through the rest of the playoffs and into the 2012 offseason. League announced its findings on March 2.

As you can see, there was no three year long investigation as some people misrepresent. There was one initial investigation following the 2009 season and it was reopened prior to the Detroit game in January 2012. Nothing was done by the league in the interim.

Quote:EVIDENCE: The NFL report said the investigation was based on "multiple sources." Citing league sources, Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com reported the league had more than one whistleblower.

After re-opening the investigation in late 2011, NFL investigators were given permission by Saints owner Tom Benson to access the club's emails. These emails formed the bulk of the 18,000 documents cited in the NFL report. The 50,000 pages of documents were simply the printouts of the emails.

This verified but I'm assuming the vast majority of the emails were irrelevant to the bounty program. It's unclear whose emails were confiscated and for how long but the NFL said some of them corroborated evidence gleaned from other sources and interviews.

NFL investigators can readily access any email that's been processed on the league's server. Even emails that were deleted can be retrieved.

And these NFL investigators are top-notch sleuths. Most are former FBI or law enforcement agents.

From what I've been able to gather, the information in the emails confirmed the evidence gleaned from outside sources and solidified the NFL's case. The emails were the proverbial nail in the coffin for the Saints.

The exhaustive 50,000 pages of gathered evidence that many claim to be so damning is almost entirely trash. It wasn't the result of extensive investigating, it was all produced in early 2012 by printing out all 18,000 emails that went through the Saints NFL email server.

More than one of you have thrown out the fact that there were 50,000 pages of evidence that supported Goodells case so everything the media is guessing must be true.

None of this means that nothing happened, but it does prove that you can't believe everything you hear and read.