commentary...

the decision to vacate,or overturn,the suspensions of four players involved in the Saints' "bounty" scandal is the interpretation of Article 14,which involves the system arbitrator,and Article 46,which involves the Commissioner,and what each person has to do with player discipline... the system arbitrator(Stephen Burbank)deals with matters to do with the teams' salary cap(in the case of this decision:the Saints,being the team),and the Commissioner deals with player discipline,with "conduct detrimental" issues... the three members of the appeals panel could not decide,who could honestly deal with the delicate issues,involved in this situation,and thus vacating the suspensions,so basically,they actually punted it back to the Commissioner to decide if,in his opinion,it has to do,with "conduct detrimental" issues,which is easy for to decide,and readjust the suspensions,if adjusting the suspensions,is even warranted,in the Commissioner's opinion... i believe the players can not go back to the panel,so if,and when the Commissioner decides that the suspensions are correct,and proper,in original form,they will be back at square one,in front of U.S. Second District Judge(of Louisiana) Helen G. Berrigan,so this circus is not over,at all... Jonathan Vilma,who tweeted,"victory is mine" may be happy now,but he may have to eat crow,next weekend,because this is going back to federal court,for an ultimate decision,Jonathan,because Commissioner Roger Goodell is not going to back down,and not,"do what is not in the best interest of the NFL",so ultimately you will lose,simply because you,and the players,are not bigger than the NFL,period...