Jonathan Vilma and Will Smith — two of the four players mired in the never-ending New Orleans Saints — attended a hearing in Washington, D.C. Friday so they could hear first-hand the testimony of former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams testify at an appeals hearing.
“We got to hear what Gregg had to say,” Smith said. “We wanted to make sure we were there just to hear him out.”.
The NFL has said Williams was in charge of a pay-for-pain bounty system with the New Orleans Saints.
The former defensive coordinator — who told the league about others’ involvement — was being cross-examined Friday by lawyers for players appealing their suspensions in the case.
“We know what we did and know what we didn’t do,” Smith said.
Smith described the hearing as “peaceful” and “not awkward.”
Smith and Vilma — along with two former Saints, free-agent defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove and Clevlend Browns linebacker Scot Fujita — were suspended by the NFL for the Saints’ cash-for-hits program that the league says Williams ran from 2009 to 2011.
Smith, whose four-game suspension was later reduced to three games, and Vilma, suspended for the current season, have been playing while their appeals are pending.
Smith declined to discuss any details of Friday’s hearing.
The hearing is part of the latest round of player appeals overseen by former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue. Former Saints assistant coach Mike Cerullo faced questions Thursday, when lawyers for the league and for players spent more than nine hours in a Washington office building.
Tagliabue and various lawyers declined to comment Thursday or Friday.
Vilma and Smith traveled to Washington after playing in New Orleans’ 23-13 loss at Atlanta on Thursday night.
Neither player was required to attend Friday, but Smith said this week that “part of the things that we wanted all along was to face our accusers.”
The NFL has described Vilma and Smith as ringleaders of a performance pool designed to knock targeted opponents out of games. The league has sworn statements from Williams and Cerullo saying Vilma offered $10,000 to anyone who knocked quarterback Brett Favre out of the NFC Championship Game at the end of the 2009 season.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell issued the initial suspensions, which also included a full-season ban for Saints head coach Sean Payton.
Lawsuits brought by Vilma and the NFL Players Association to challenge Goodell’s handling of the case, including his decision in October to appoint Tagliabue as the arbitrator for the appeals, are pending in federal court in New Orleans.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan gave the parties until Monday to answer questions about whether the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement prevents a commissioner from handing out discipline for legal contact, and whether the CBA’s passages about detrimental conduct are “ambiguous, hence unenforceable.”
According to the league, the pay-for-pain program was administered by Williams, with Payton’s knowledge. At the time, Williams apologized for his role, saying: “It was a terrible mistake, and we knew it was wrong while we were doing it.”
