NEW ORLEANS — If the Saints decide Jonathan Vilma is ready, the embattled linebacker will take the field in Tampa Bay on Sunday for the first time this season.
NEW ORLEANS — If the Saints decide Jonathan Vilma is ready, the embattled linebacker will take the field in Tampa Bay on Sunday for the first time this season.
It might also be the last time, depending on how things go at NFL headquarters and in federal court.
On Monday, Vilma again asked a federal judge to overturn his recently re-issued suspension in the NFL’s bounty probe of the Saints, and the NFL Players Association made a similar request on behalf of three other players.
None of the four players’ suspensions are currently being enforced, but that could change as early as next week. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has scheduled the players’ appeal hearings for Oct. 23.
The players want U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan to begin considering their cases now so she may be ready to rule by the time the NFL’s appeal’s process concludes.
Vilma’s latest filing said Goodell conducted a “farcical review” of his previously overturned disciplinary action before ruling last week that the Saints linebacker would remain suspended for the season.
The NFL did not immediately respond to requests for comment, deferring instead to its legal response which is due in federal court Wednesday.
Vilma is facing the longest suspension of four players punished in connection with what the NFL has said was a pool that rewarded Saints players with improper cash bonuses for hits that injured opponents.
Saints defensive end Will Smith was docked four games, free-agent defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove seven games and Cleveland linebacker Scott Fujita one game. Vilma’s and Smith’s suspensions remain unchanged from what Goodell initially handed down. Hargrove’s suspension was reduced by one game and he was given credit for five games missed as a free agent. Fujita’s ban was reduced from three games.
The NFL Players Association is representing Smith, Hargrove and Fujita. Vilma has his own lawyers, Peter Ginsberg and Duke Williams.
The players said Goodell has continued to abuse his power and demonstrate bias, leaving no hope for a fair process that would respect their “industrial due process rights.”