The New Orleans Saints bounty scandal has embroiled the team all season and has shown no signs of slowing down. Linebacker Jonathan Vilma has been front and center of the entire situation, fighting his season-long suspension by commissioner Roger Goodell and the league.
Vilma will finally be eligible to play this week after coming off of the physically unable to perform list and said he plans to be in the New Orleans lineup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
According to the Associated Press: "I'll be allowed to practice, I'll be allowed to play versus Tampa Bay [on Sunday]," Vilma said, according to WVUE-TV in New Orleans.
According to the Associated Press: "A federal magistrate judge has ordered NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to provide the court with documents related to the league's bounty investigation of the New Orleans Saints."
Also in the article: "The Saints, however, currently have 'no idea' whether Vilma will be activated off the PUP list to make his season debut against the Buccaneers, a team source told ESPN NFL Insider Ed Werder."
Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said Vilma will ''be able to practice on Wednesday, which I think is a great thing for our football team and our defense.''
Whether Vilma plays or not, it is another significant moment for the linebacker and the bounty scandal itself.
''Let's get them out there, practice and get ready with the one focus being figuring out what's best to help our team beat Tampa Bay,'' Spagnuolo said. ''That will be the No. 1 focus this week with nothing else in sight other than that.''
Vilma, along with Will Smith, Anthony Hargrove and Scott Fujita, were all suspended due to their alleged involvement in the teams' bounty program. The players have appealed their suspensions multiple times and have stated they did not participate in the program.
The league announced earlier in the year that they had obtained a wide range of information detailing a bounty system by the Saints that stretched from the 2009 season to 2011. The report said that up to 27 Saints players were involved and that it was organized and run by defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.
Some of the claims included bounties on quarterbacks Brett Favre and Kurt Warner, as well as cash payouts for injuries and big hits.
Vilma has denied his alleged role in the system and had his season-long suspension overturned a few weeks by an appeals panel. The players were all eligible to play the last two weeks after the panel overturned their suspensions, but they were later reinstated by Goodell.
The reasoning for the panel ruling was that Goodell had gone too far in his authority by hearing the players' appeals of their punishments for participating in the bounty program. He could only suspend players based on intent to injure, and not due to secret monetary compensation.
Will Smith has played in five Saints games this year, while Vilma has been hurt. Fujita played in three Browns games and Hargrove is still a free agent.
Vilma and the other players also met with Goodell to discuss the suspensions last week. Following the meeting, Vilma and his attorney presented defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and former defensive assistant Mike Cerullo with subpoenas in his defamation suit against NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, according to ESPN.com.
The two helped provide evidence to the league about the bounties and apparently made the claims that Vilma offered $10,000 for injuring Brett Favre.
Now Vilma is taking his fight to court again and will ask for a federal judge to overturn his re-issued suspension.
According to the Associated Press: "Vilma's lawyers filed a 29-page motion Monday in a New Orleans court to vacate his season-long suspension once more, seeking 'to put a halt to the ongoing and fundamentally unfair treatment of Jonathan Vilma by ... Roger Goodell.'"
As said in the motion: "Goodell's manifest bias and partiality is palpable, reflected in his many judgmental, accusatory and unsupported public accusations against Vilma and manifested in a procedure he has invoked which rips at the heart of any notion of fundamental fairness and due process in order to punish Vilma for acts he did not commit."
The whole scandal has been a black eye for the NFL and depending on how things go in court, it could get worse. Vilma will achieve a small victory for himself and the team if he plays this Sunday.
"I'm feeling good, feeling good," Vilma said, according to the WVUE-TV. "I know that the media hasn't seen much of me for a while, but I've actually been working out, working hard, training hard so I can get to this point to be able to give our team a chance to win in Tampa Bay."
The league will rule on their next round of appeals later this month on Oct. 23.
