Bountygate witness/rat now works for league office, part of Payton review

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My god. Are you people serious with this shite?

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My god. Are you people serious with this shite?

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"If I took Mike Cerullo, who was sitting right here right now, and Commissioner, asked him to get up on the board and diagram 11 offensive players and 11 defensive players, No. 1, he couldn't do that," Vitt said. "He could not draw a pro offense, a slot set. He could not give me a pro set. He could not give me I split, I near, I far backs, and that's after being in this league for three years. So when we hired him in '08 at the suggestion from some coaches from Syracuse, we had him on the offensive side of the ball. Doug Marrone is a Syracuse grad. He's now the head coach at Syracuse. He kind if stuck up for Cerullo a little bit, he was going to try to show him the way. As soon as Doug Marrone left, we begged Doug Marrone to take this guy with him back to Syracuse and give him a position. Doug said, no, he's staying right there. So the offense had had enough of Mike Cerullo.

"So we brought him to the defensive side of the ball, because no matter what anybody says, you know, we're not quick to hire and slow to fire. We are slow to hire, but we are also slow to fire. We want to give people their chance to make our football team and make their contributions to the league. So now we get Cerullo to the defensive side. So my first exposure to Mike Cerullo is in '08. We're in Las Vegas. Mike Cerullo, because I'm the assistant head coach, comes to me and tells me he's got financial problems, that his father has got cancer, that he's spending a lot of money back home for his father's chemotherapy. I fix him up with Dennis Lauscha. Dennis Lauscha is our president and CEO. Dennis helps him file for bankruptcy. I think we give him a little bit of money.

"Well, the first trip that we take as a staff out to Las Vegas to see some Las Vegas shows with our wives, here comes Mike Cerullo, pulls up with two limos, and two girls get out of each limo. So he's just declared bankruptcy, but he can go buy - get two limos with a bunch of girls coming out. So as stupid as I am, and I know how dumb I am, and I'm going to be reminded in a couple of minutes how dumb I am, the red light went off for me.

"We get to the '09 season. This man missed three weeks in a 16-game schedule. ... The first time, he told us he had to go out and visit his fiance and their kids, because there was a sickness in the family, his fiance is an orthopedic surgeon, he had to help the kids get to school, there's some illness. Listen, we don't need him anyway, let him go out there. So he goes out there for a week early in the year.

"Midseason he comes back and tells us my sister's - excuse me, my fiance's brother has flown to Haiti to help with the Haiti Relief Fund after the earthquake. There's an aftershock, and her brother is now killed in the aftershock. She's got to get over there to identify the body, I've got to fly to Oklahoma to watch the kids. He's gone for another week. He comes to our team security guy, and he's got to go out there another week to retrieve an engagement ring that he gave to a girl that he had never met. So that's a third week.

"A week after the season ends, it's a Friday night, I'm saying not more than a week after the Super Bowl. Sean Payton calls me on a Friday night. ... He said Mike Cerullo's fiance was just in a terrible car accident down in Oklahoma. The truck overturned, a child was thrown from the car and was drowned in a pond. Sean has got emotion in his voice, he's upset.

"I said, 'Listen to me, Sean, this never happened.' He gets pissed off at me. (Payton says) 'How can you say such a thing? This is one of your ...' I said, 'It never happened. Just relax. Give me 20 minutes. In 20 minutes, you call Cerullo back, and we'll see if this happened or not.'

"I call Mike Cerullo immediately back on the phone. I said, 'Mike, this is Coach Vitt, I am so sorry what's happened, Mike.' (Cerullo said) 'Yeah, Coach, this is bad.'

"I said, 'Well listen, here's what I know we can do right now. I've talked to Mr. Benson. His airplane is fueled. We're ready to take off in 45 minutes. I'm going to pick you up, we're flying right to Norman, Oklahoma.

"(Cerullo says) 'No, no, wait coach. Wait, coach. No, no. W-w-w-w-wait. I've got to get more details.'

"I said, 'Mike, we just got the details that your fiance was in a fatal car accident with her child dying and drowning and your fiance is in critical condition. Let's get out there.' (Cerullo said) 'No, no, no, well, just wait.' (Vitt said) 'Well, Mike, does your fiance have a sister?' (Cerullo said) 'Yeah, she's got a sister.' (Vitt said) 'Do you have her number?' (Cerullo said) 'Well, I've got to get if off Facebook.'

"This goes on and on for 10 minutes. I hang up. I said, 'Listen, Mike,' before I hung up, 'you'd better call Coach Payton, he's waiting for your phone call.' So 10 minutes later he called Coach Payton. (Vitt said Cerullo told Payton) 'Coach, I don't need the plane, let me get the details, maybe we'll get out in the morning.' Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom, ba-da-bat, ba-da-boom. Sean calls back and he said, 'Well, you're right.' I said, 'Well this is the fourth. This is the fourth. He went to Haiti, he had to go babysit, he went to go get a ring and now this is the fourth. So when are we going to have an exit strategy with this young lad? When are we going to get him off the premises?'

"And when we got him off the premises, Sean felt it was necessary to have police protection at his house, because he was way to the owners' meeting, and the wife and kids are staying there. So Mike Cerullo can tell you anything he wants. Mike Cerullo is going to have to repeat it in a court of law, again, because I'm going after him. I'm going after Mike Cerullo. Enough. Enough is enough."

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