re: The Elephant in the Room...

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If Vilma has rattled the cage in such a way that the Commish is willing to reduce his punishment by 50%, at what time does Sean P. do the exact same thing??

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Vilma has different tools and evidence to rattle Goodell's cage with. Saying you never tried to injure anyone or offered $10,000 for Brett Favre is a very different claim than a Pay for Performance program =/= Pay for Injury program. When the bounty case first broke the topic came up in conversation between my wife, mother and father. I was the only person that wasn't completely shocked and disgusted and I really didn't say much because I knew telling them it's just macho locker room talk wouldn't have made a difference. From their perspective being rewarded for legally tackling a guy so hard he has to come out a few plays is is as bad as trying to take out someone's knee with an illegal hit.

The only way I see Payton getting a sentence reduction without Goodell going down is if the Saints start out hot and the media starts making the case for how the game will suffer and how unfair it is that one of the league's contenders is without it HC because of BS trumped up charges.

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At what point do the owners step in and give a performance review on their crawfish employee.

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At the point that it effects ratings negatively, which it won't. Goodell has only made the owners richer with this by giving them a fake issue to get money back from the players during the next CBA negotiations.