Out with the new,
ROGER GOODELL fired himself under pressure as appeals officer in the BountyGate case and hired his mentor and former boss Paul
Tagliabue to take his place. Is the fix in? Will Tagliabue just confirm the findings of Goodell, whom he groomed to take his job as commissioner? The BountyGaters wanted Goodell out. They didn’t say whom they wanted in.
Or will Tagliabue, who refused to allow the Saints to move after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in 2005 and is considered as much a hero in the Big Easy as Goodell is a villain, embarrass his protégé by severely reducing the player suspensions, casting doubt on the entire NFL investigation?
Goodell as judge and jury was attacked by the BountyGaters, especially Jonathan Vilma, who received a year-long suspension, but their issue should be with NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, who failed to chip away at Goodell’s power in last year’s collective bargaining talks.
Now, the NFL just wants to put an end to this story and get out of court, where Vilma is suing Goodell. Will it take a complete exoneration for Vilma — that was never going to happen with Goodell — to drop his lawsuit or will a major reduction in his suspension satisfy him? Tagliabue, an attorney, has the smarts to be able to construct a win-win settlement.
Vilma, who had been on the PUP list with a bum knee, is expected to play in his first game of the season Sunday when the Saints are in Tampa. Tagliabue will hear the appeals on Oct. 30 and the suspensions of the four players are on hold until the ruling. None of this affects the year-long suspension of Saints coach Sean
Payton.
Goodell had the right to hear the appeals himself or hand them off, which he has done in other cases when he’s appointed Harold Henderson, Jay Moyer, Bob
Wallace, all with ties to the NFL, or Jeff Pash, a league VP, to sit in for him.
He did the right thing recusing himself in the Saints case. He has too much invested. He picked Tagliabue, a man of unquestioned integrity, but he still will have to put any loyalty to Goodell aside to give the players a fair hearing. This will be watched closely. So what’s going to happen? Goodell was Tagliabue’s right-hand man and confidante during the later years of Tagliabue’s time as commissioner from 1989-2006. If he looks at the evidence differently than Goodell and casts major doubt with his ruling, then it will negatively affect the commissioner, who has been adamant that the Saints were setting bounties on opposing players.
Tagliabue may cut back the suspensions — Goodell had already reduced Scott Fujita’s from three games to one and Anthony Hargrove’s from eight games to seven while keeping Will Smith at four games and Vilma at 16 — but I can’t see it being drastic.
Goodell will not have a role in the upcoming hearings and says he has not consulted with Tagliabue on the Saints situation and is not been part of the process. If Tagliabue rules for the Saints, the league will be humiliated. I think he finds a compromise.
A SAD REID
Andy Reid has been with the Eagles for 14 seasons, which is a really long time for a coach who has not won the Super Bowl. Now it seems that if Reid doesn’t take the Eagles on an extended journey into January, somebody else will be coaching Philly in 2013.
It’s been a horrible year personally for Reid. His oldest son Garrett, who had a history with drug addiction, died in his dormitory room at Eagles training camp in August. He had been working with the team’s strength and conditioning staff. On Thursday, the coroner’s office announced Garrett Reid had died from an accidental heroin overdose.
What was heroin doing in the Eagles dorms? If Reid had his son at training camp so he could stay close to him and monitor him, then he failed. Garrett Reid being allowed to work with the players while he had heroin in his dorm room is a terrible reflection on owner Jeffrey Lurie and the team.
It was telling in training camp when Lurie was asked if he would be able to separate himself from judging Reid as GARY MYERS
NFL