NFL has copy of ledger detailing Saints' bounty earnings

Posted: 06:37 PM ET June 01, 2012

By Ryan Wilson | NFL Blogger

The plot thickens in the never-ending bounty saga. (Getty Images/US PRESSWIRE)
The intrigue surrounding the Saints bounty scandal continues. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has punished the organization from top to bottom, suspended linebacker Jonathan Vilma has sued Goodell for defamation, and on Friday, documentary filmmaker Sean Pamphilon implied that New Orleans players Drew Brees and Scott Fujita (now with the Browns) said that he should to release the damning audio recordings of then-defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.

And now there's this: The NFL has a copy of a ledger detailing weekly bounty earnings of Saints players, CBSSports.com's Mike Freeman has confirmed. The ledger shows both money earned from "cart-offs" ($1,000 payouts) and "whacks" ($400), as well as deductions for "mental errors" ($100), Yahoo.com's Jason Cole reported. Sources told Cole that the NFL presented the ledger during meetings with some of those involved in the scandal.

In one meeting, two entries from the 2009 season were highlighted, Cole writes. Facing the Bills on Sept. 27, 2009, "there were three $1,000 awards. ... And, in a game against the New York Giants on Oct. 18, there was a $1,000 bounty awarded for one cart-off."

It gets worse, allegedly: an opposing player who had been carted off and landed on injured reserve had an exclamation point next to his name in the ledger. "The players knew what their actions were for," the source said.

More via Cole's report:

"The players clearly knew what was going on each week with the payments," a source told Yahoo! Sports. In fact, multiple sources admitted that Saints defensive players would regularly encourage teammates to put money earned from the bounty system back into the pool. It's unclear if that was to increase the potential winnings or eventually use the money for some other purpose.

NFLPA spokesman George Atallah told Cole via text that the NFL "made mention" of the ledger during a meeting with the union in April but that the NFLPA hadn't yet seen it.

"I guess it either qualifies as evidence, which means fair due process was violated because [the] players didn't get to see it before they were punished or it is not hard evidence because they didn't get to see it and cross examine the validity of that piece of evidence," Atallah wrote to Cole.

Goodell said Thursday that bounties in the NFL shouldn't be an issue going forward. We were skeptical in light of several NFLPA grievances filed against Goodell as well as Vilma's lawsuit. Now, however, it seems the commissioner may have been onto something.

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Tags: Drew Brees, Jonathan Vilma, Scott Fujita, Ryan Wilson, New Orleans Saints, NFL

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