NFL: Saints Bounty Thread

[RockHoward]

(05-10-2012 10:40 AM)AsylumGuido Wrote:  How does that concede that the players are lying?

The players are being punished for allegedly contributing money for intentional injuries to other players and/or collecting money for intentionally injuring other players. The players are all saying that they they never contributed money for intentional injury nor collected for the same.

Even if accurate, how does this prove that they are lying? It doesn't. Unless real tangible proof is ever produced that directly ties each of these four players to either contributions or collections with the intent on injure their punishments are not valid.

I never said anything about proof. I said that if we used the assumption that Werder's source in the Saints camp was accurate then that contradicts the players contention that bounties and such never happened.

You did not counter this conclusion. Instead you replied that this would also mean that Goodell was lying. At that point I showed how that even though the bounty program was made less visible and care was taken to hide it (as Payton requested and as the Saints source also indicated), the evidence of the audio tape and such strongly suggests that it did not go away entirely thus demonstrating that Goodell statement seems to be supportable.

Now this does not constitute proof, but it is easy to believe that the proof is in Goodell's hands. It also serves as a reminder that a big part of this whole story is how the bounty program was largely hidden after 2009 but not terminated as commanded by the commissioner. That is on the coaches and not the players, but the fact that the players lied to protect the coaches definitely puts them in an uncomfortable position as the efficacy of their statements is clearly compromised.

In a court of law and in the court of public opinion punishment requires publicly available proof, but such is not the case for internal NFL matters. Here privately held evidence is good enough. It is my belief that the players will be made to understand that releasing the evidence to the public would open up the Saints organization inclusing many of the defensive players to criminal prosecution for conspiring to cause injury.

Rex Ryan should take note too AFAIC.