NFLPA Continues Useless Lawsuits Over BountyGate

Feb 2, 2012; Indianapolis, IN, USA; NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith during the NFL players association press conference at the Super Bowl XLVI media center at the J.W. Marriott. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

DeMaurice Smith is apparently content to waste everyone’s time.

Over the holiday, we wrote a post called “Earth to Saints Players:Enough!” If you missed it, you can check it out by clicking here.

Obviously, they didn’t listen to us.  To go along with the suit that Jonathan Vilma has filed on his own, the NFLPA has filed suit on behalf of the other three players, Will Smith, Scott Fujita, and Anthony Hargrove, that were allegedly involved in the Bountygate scandal. Goodell has moved for Vilma’s suit to be dismissed, but this is routine.

The suit by the NFLPA accuses Roger Goodell of being “incurably biased”. They are requesting previous arbitrator decisions to be overruled and Goodell removed as the person deciding this case.

We discussed this at length on the 4th, but it needs repeating apparently.

This is ridiculous. They have no chance. They are wasting the court’s time, as well as everyone else’s.

We will talk about the reasons on the next page.

First of all, the lawsuit in part says that the league broke the labor agreement by not giving the players access to “critical documents…”

Really??

Go to the NFLPA website by clicking here.  Not only did the league make its evidence available to the players, the players made it available on their website!  Is the NFLPA serious?  Folks, we aren’t as stupid as DeMaurice Smith apparently thinks we are.

The NFLPA said it asked the NFL for access to Sean Payton, former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who was alleged to have headed up the program, interim Coach Joe Vitt, former defensive assistant Mike Cerullo, and NFL security personnel Joe Hummel and Jeffrey Miller. It said the league made none of those witnesses available.

Does this make sense to anyone? Why would the league look to prevent witnesses from testifying in the case? Goodell, who if nothing else is good with PR, is not going to make the process even appear to be rigged. It would tarnish his public image far too much. It doesn’t make any sense. Gregg Williams confessed, why wouldn’t he talk again?

What does make sense, is that these witnesses refused to testify. Coaches are always going to stand by their players. Other than under subpoena, coaches aren’t going to sell their own players up the river, even if that coach is already in trouble. It’s not going to happen.

That’s what makes sense, and these lawsuits don’t.

Finally, we go back to this ridiculous argument that the commissioner is over stepping his bounds.

Again…he’s not.

Read the CBA that you signed, Mr. Smith. He’s not over stepping. He is doing what you agreed to.

Take a look at this quote, again, from the CBA:

Commissioner may serve as hearing officer in any appeal under Section 1 (a) of this Article at his discretion.

What is section 1 (a) of this article you ask? Here is the description of the situations involved:

All disputes involving a fine or suspension imposed upon a player for conduct on the playing field (other than as described in Subsection (b) below) or involving action taken against a player by the Commissioner for conduct detrimental to the integrity of, or public confidence in, the game of professional football,…

Conduct detrimental to the integrity of the game of professional football, doesn’t paying to injure other players sound like it falls under that category? 2 arbitrators have already agreed.

But yet, the NFLPA continues this useless exercise.

Roddy White is the only guy that got it. When this all began, he took aim at the NFLPA for signing the union up for a bad agreement.

He’s dead on. They signed up for this. You see the quotes, directly from the agreement. You can’t now turn and argue that it isn’t fair.

It’s ridiculous, and a waste of time.