New Orleans players file appeal on bounty suspensions
All four New Orleans Saints players that were hit with suspensions have filed appeals before the Friday deadline to do so, according to the NFL.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello confirmed Friday that all four players had filed appeals, but said the league would decline comment on the substance of those documents.
The appeals fall under the collective bargaining agreement process after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell had re-issued the sanctions on Tuesday.
Goodell had reduced Anthony Hargrove‘s suspension from eight games to seven, Scott Fujita‘s suspension from three games to one, and reenforced the one-year suspension for Jonathan Vilma as well as a four-game suspension for Will Smith.
Fuijita is no longer a Saint and is now on the Cleveland Browns roster.
Vilma’s appeal is of special intrigue because he has also filed a defamation against Goodell that is in the process of being worked out in federal court in New Orleans.
In addition, Vilma and the NFLPA could ask U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan to revisit their earlier legal challenge of the suspensions.
All four players are focused on stopping the enforcement of any of their suspension and have filed the appeals to buy themselves more time.
“The commissioner says he is disappointed in me,” Fujita said Wednesday. “The truth is, I’m disappointed in him.”
