re: NFL presented Vilma w/sworn affidavit of GW stating Vilma offered 10k for Favre

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He will need written evidence prove himself.

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And he will have someone write it

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goodell has to prove he had sufficient evidence that allowed him to make the statements he made.

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How are statements from supervisors about a subordinate's actions during a meeting not sufficient? Remember that the players who were accused refused to meet with Goodell and defend themselves. They had their reasons for that, but this appears to be the sequence of events:

1) Cerullo gives the initial story which lines up with the NFL's legal interests and the witch hunt is on. Now all RG needs is a good villain or 2.

2) Saints cooperate fully and turnover all of their emails.

3) FO/Coaching staff are interviewed
- GW squeals like a pig and throws everyone under the bus in the process
- Payton and Loomis may or may not know what went down but they do know they were letting GW do his own thing so they accept responsibility while blaming everything on GW
- Vitt denies things and Goodell decides that he is lying and suspends him for lying.

4) Accused players refuse to meet with Goodell.

So all of Goodell's evidence either corroborates the Vilma bounty, or has been determined to be a lie. The players do not meet with Goodell to refute the accusations and offer their own version of events. At this point Goodell has no reason to doubt his information. Again, the defamation suit isn't about Goodell having to prove that Vilma offered a bounty but Vilma proving that it was unreasonable to assume that he did. Vilma didn't bother defending himself when given the chance and none of his superiors defended him.

I'm no lawyer but short of an email from Goodell proving it was a witch hunt, I don't see how Vilma proves defamation. Goodell had every reason to believe what had been discovered and no obligation to investigate further that I can see. Now if Vilma had met with Goodell and denied the accusations and said every single teammate and a few coaches would back him up and Goodell refused to follow that up and then made the bounty claims he might have a case, but I think Vilma not defending himself gave Goodell the green light to stop the investigation with the limited "evidence" he had.

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Side note: What was Cerullo's role in the Saint's organization? People keep referring to two coaches implicating Vilma but I thought Cerullo was some minor administrative functionary.

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He was a "Saints Quality Control Coach"