Roger Goodell To Meet With Bounty Players Tuesday

September 9, 2012; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma (51) leads the who dat chant before a game against the Washington Redskins at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is hoping to meet with the players who were suspended for their involvement in the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal “as soon as possible” The player temporarily had their suspensions lifted after an appeals panel came to the conclusion that Goodell overstepped his boundaries as commissioner.

Apparently, “as soon as possible” translates to this coming Tuesday:

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One of the formerly suspended players who received the harshest suspension of a full year, Jonathan Vilma, is looking forward to the hearings.

Vilma walked out on discussions with Roger Goodell on June 18th after he felt Goodell was putting on a “charade.” The two sides then had an August meeting in place but it was cancelled. Vilma believes that this meeting with the commissioner will be different.

“I’m expecting a fair meeting, unlike the June 18 appeals hearing,” Vilma said in a text to ESPN’s Ed Werder. “We can all benefit from transparency regarding evidence and witnesses instead of using conjecture or hearsay to come to inaccurate conclusions. I look forward to getting this accomplished.”

Vilma’s attorney Peter Ginsberg hopes to see more evidence in the meetings. The lack of evidence is what caused Vilma to walk out of the June meeting.

“We want to see the evidence and confront the witnesses,” Ginsberg said. “When the commissioner produces less than one percent of the evidence gathered in the investigation, it became abundantly clear we were not being offered a fair opportunity to present to him in a very strong and detailed manner what in fact took place and decided not to participate in what was clearly a charade.

“We hope that now as we regroup that we are provided a fair and appropriate avenue to a just resolution.”

Hopefully everyone involved can sort this mess out and come to a conclusion sooner rather than later.