The NFL Players Association has filed a lawsuit against the NFL on behalf of three players suspended in connection with the league's bounty investigation.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in New Orleans on Thursday. It says NFL commissioner Roger Goodell violated the collective bargaining agreement by showing publicly he had determined Will Smith, Anthony Hargrove and Scott Fujita had participated in a bounty system even before serving as an arbitrator at their hearing.
The NFL responded to the lawsuit in a statement Thursday, saying, "As in the case of Mr. Vilma's lawsuit, this is an improper attempt to litigate an issue that is committed to a collectively bargained process. There is no basis for asking a federal court to put its judgment in place of procedures agreed upon with the NFPLA in collective bargaining. These procedures have been in place, and have served the game and players well, for many decades."
The NFLPA lawsuit comes just five days after Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma filed his second lawsuit against Goodell.
In Vilma's latest filing, he claims that the NFL's collective bargaining agreement required Goodell to rule as soon as was practical following a June 18 appeal hearing. Because players, in protest, declined to present new evidence in the hearing, Goodell should have been able to rule by June 25, the first business day after the record was closed in the matter, the lawsuit argues.
Vilma contends punished players have only been able to see less than 1 percent of the 18,000 documents the league said it complied. His suit also claims that the few key pieces of evidence the league shared are flawed, including printed reproductions of handwritten notes.
The lawsuit seeks to discredit a key piece of evidence outlining bounty pledges from before the NFC Championship Game against Minnesota in January 2010, and also takes aim at fired assistant coach Mike Cerullo, who, according to Vilma, produced the document for the league.
The lawsuit claims Cerullo created the document "well after the 209 NFC Championship Game and in an effort to gain revenge against the Saints."
The suit further contends that a "close associate" of Cerullo has confirmed that Cerullo retracted his previous claims about the bounty program "in communication directly with Goodell that occurred in April 2012."