Vilma to file injunction is suspension is upheld
New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma informed federal judge Helen G. Berrigan by letter that he plans to file an injunction if NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell doesn't overturn his one-year suspension.
Vilma is one of four players suspended for their role in the team's alleged bounty scandal. He was suspended for the 2012 season and has filed a separate defamation suit against Goodell.
Vilma and his attorney, Peter Ginsberg, left the June 18 appeal hearing with Goodell and the other suspended players -- Anthony Hargrove, Scott Fujita and Will Smith -- calling the session a "sham." The other three players returned to a meeting with Goodell after a delay of more than three hours.
"Roger Goodell has taken three months to tear down what I built over eight years," Vilma said on June 18. "It's tough to swallow. I have been linked to a bounty, and it simply is not true. I don't know how I can get a fair process when his the judge, jury and executioner. You're assuming it will be fair -- but it's not."
Goodell was granted an extension to respond to Vilma to July 5.
