NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The attorney for New Orleans linebacker Jonathan Vilma has filed a court brief in the bounties case with
an email from a former assistant coach who called the Saints a "dirty organization."
The email from Mike Cerullo to NFL spokesman
Greg Aiello is part of a motion that seeks to block former Commissioner
Paul
Tagliabue from hearing appeals of the alleged program to pay for
injury-producing hits. Vilma claims that Cerullo had a vendetta
against Saints interim coach Joe Vitt after being fired.
The motion by Vilma's attorney, Peter
Ginsberg, also challenges the NFL's plan to have Cerullo and former
Saints defensive
coordinator Gregg Williams testify by telephone at the
hurricane-delayed appeals hearing. Ginsberg writes that both men should
be at the hearing if it goes forward.
Vilma was suspended for the entire season —
the stiffest suspension of four players named in the bounties case — but
he was
allowed to suit up while appealing. Tagliabue was scheduled to
hear the case this week, but it was delayed because of Superstorm
Sandy. The other players are Saints defensive end Will Smith,
Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita and free agent defensive
end Anthony Hargrove.
Cerullo's email, dated Nov. 2, 2011, tells
Aiello that he has information on Vitt lying to an NFL investigator
about a bounty
program "along with proof!!" Cerullo has been fired by the Saints
after the 2009 season, which Vilma claims led him to seek
revenge against Vitt and the Saints.
"I was there, in the cover up meetings, with
players and Joe," Cerullo wrote. "I love the NFL and want to work there
again,
but I am afraid if I tell (the) truth I will never coach again in
NFL. But I was fired for a situation the Saints encourage."
Cerullo said he was hoping to be hired by another NFL team and if talking with Aiello jeopardized his chances, "I will have
to get back to you, but The Saints are a Dirty Organization."
Details of the email were first reported by ProFootballTalk.com.
Ginsberg said the NFL has agreed to make Cerullo and Williams, the alleged mastermind of the scheme, available by telephone
for the appeals hearing. The attorney said that won't do.
"Given their importance to this matter,
testimony by telephone is not an adequate substitute," Ginsberg wrote.
"The NFL should
be required to produce for in-person testimony any witness upon
whom it intends to rely during the upcoming hearing so that
the witness can be adequately examined and his or her credibility
adequately evaluated."