re: Players are free!!! All player discipline vacated.

This whole thing is just another big sham put on by the NFL. Goodell and the NFL planned this whole thing out in cahoots with Tagliabue. 

Basically, this is just something that the NFL can now use in the defamation case to say, "Look Judge Berrigan!!! Even the arbiter (hand picked by Goodell himself) agrees with ALL of our findings!!! It can't be defamation if it's true!!! And OBVIOUSLY he was impartial because he even said the punishments were too severe and overturned the suspensions (after they had already missed time and the Saints season was over)!!!!" 


This is the biggest fraud attempted in this whole thing, and of course the brainless and lazy fricking media and most of our fans are going to accept it thinking we've won some kind of victory. 

Think about this, Tags basically said he agrees with the league's findings, but the players can't be punished because they were only following orders. 

Well if he agrees with all findings, that means HE AGREES THAT THERE WAS INTENT TO INJURE, BUT ONLY THE COACH CAN BE PUNISHED, NOT THE PLAYERS. 

So the precedent now is that a coach can go to a player, tell that player to take a QBs knees out, and THE PLAYER CAN DO IT WITHOUT BEING PUNISHED. 

THAT is what Tagliabue has told the world today. 

Of course, that isn't what he, or anyone else, wants the NFL to stand for. But Tags HAD to say he agreed with the findings, or Goodell would have been fricked in his defamation case, and this was always about protecting Goodell. 

As usual, the NFL is thinking in the short term, not the long term, which has been their error in the entire approach to this case. 

Enjoy your victory everyone. It truly means nothing and was a calculated attempt to get Goodell out of a huge judgement from Judge Berrigan. 

The NFL will quickly change position if anything like this comes up again with "bounties" or performance pools, but of course, based on this entire saga, they are betting that they've gotten their message across, and it will never come up again. 

And of course, they also realize the odds of coaches and players intentionally trying to hurt each other is virtually never going to happen, just like it didn't actually happen in New Orleans.