Roger Goodell

Updated 10:30 p.m.

Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith and the two former New Orleans Saints linked to Bountygate had their day in court today, as they showed up in New York to appeal the stiff suspensions doled out by Roger Goodell. But instead of appealing directly to Goodell, the players were more interested blasting an appeal process they called unfair. According to ESPN, Vilma left his hearing after about an hour, and derided the the way he's been treated on the way out the door. Meanwhile, Smith, and ex-Saints Scott Fujita and Anthony Hargrove issued a statement that said they were only showing up for the appeal because they were afraid how the league would make them look if they didn't.

"Shame on the National Football League and Commissioner Goodell for being more concerned about 'convicting' us publicly than being honorable and fair to men who have dedicated their professional lives to playing this game with honor," the statement said.

The trio's hearings were scheduled for this afternoon. In the statement, they said they wouldn't address the substance of the case because "this is not the proper venue for ajudication."

The players are essentially complaning that Goodell has full power as "judge, jury and executioner" over both the punishments and the appeal, as Vilma put it. Late Friday, the league presented 200 pages of evidence that they said linked the players to the Bounty program for use in the appeal. VIlma's attorney Peter Ginsberg argued the evidence doesn't link the Black and Gold's defensive captain directly to the Bounty system. Goodell initially ruled that the players violated the league's collective bargaining agreement with all players by taking money for performance.

UPDATE (3:30 p.m.) The NFL Players Association has now released the evidence that the league read off to prove their point. There's even more Gregg WIlliams-isms than we heard from Sean Pamphilon's tape in there. As promised, included in the file is a Powerpoint of all the things Williams said that the NFL claims pointed to the existence of a bounty program. One such slide depicts Dog the Bounty Hunter. The NFL's presentation says Williams used this slide to educate players on "assessing the opponent."

It gave players a point of reference that they were familiar with. Unfortunately, "Dog the Bounty Hunter" was a poorly chosen and ironic example to use but life plays havoc on us at times. 

 

Check out the annotated version of the evidence, featuring the Dog slide, here.

UPDATE (10:30 PM) As the day wound down, the NFL Players Association's outside counsel Richard Smith released a lengthy statement on the Bounty investigation, calling the leagues undertaking a "sloppy investigation," providing only 200 pages of evidence when they claimed they had 18,000 and employing US Attorney Mary Jo White to "whitewash" the investigation, as she did not conduct the investigation.

"In this matter, the conduct of the Commissioner and his representatives has undermined the fundamental process contemplated by the Collective Bargaining Agreement," the statement says. "Through this abuse, these players have been denied any semblance of due process and fairness."

To cap off the day, Drew Brees tweeted this:

If NFL fans were told there were "weapons of mass destruction" enough times, they'd believe it. But what happens when you don't find any????

— Drew Brees (@drewbrees) June 19, 2012