A New Twist to the New Orleans Saints Bounty Scandal

It's been a few weeks since the whole Bounty-Gate scandal broke that resulted in New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton being suspended for the year, GM Mickey Loomis for eight weeks, and assistant head coach Joe Vitt for six. Although the NFL was quick to hand down a penalty on the coaching staff and Loomis, it has taken some time for the NFL to hand down a punishment for the players.

Well, it looks like that it might take a little while longer for that to happen.

Over the weekend (with the NFL Draft hogging the headlines) the NFL Director of Investigations, Joe Hummel, turned in his letter of resignation.

This puts an interesting twist on things. Typically, any investigator that has a slam dunk case on his plate—like the NFL and mainstream media has portrayed this one to be—will swim with sharks while wearing Lady Gaga's meat dress before quitting.

The NFL has tried to play off Hummel's role in the case saying that he was not primarily involved, but that he and NFL security chief Jeff Miller were; Miller lead the way while Hummel reported to him. Can anyone say apples and oranges? Who was/is in charge doesn't matter. The fact is that one of the major players for the NFL has quit.

Hummel, who happens to be a former FBI man, is staying on till the end of May; plenty of time to wrap up the case if the NFL wants to. Apparently the security firm he is going to wants him pretty bad so they are willing to wait.

Perhaps the reason why the case is not already wrapped up is because the NFL does not want to admit it does not have enough to make a legitimate case. After meeting with the NFLPA and the NFL, Drew Brees stated that he saw no meaningful evidence that the system ever existed.

When you consider the speed in which the NFL acted against Payton, Loomis, and Vitt, it stands to reason that the only reason they have yet to act on the players is because they don't have any meaningful evidence like Brees said.

Commissioner Roger Goodell has claimed that the investigation is close to being over. Whether that means the NFL is going to throw in the towel or if they actually have something substantial on the players we'll have to wait and see.

Article by Travis Pulver