Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, against the player's wishes due to conflct of interest, comes into the New Orleans Saints bounty case and the outcome probably surprised everyone.
The outcome of the case reminded me greatly of the famous Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson movie of 1992 "A Few Good Men." In the movie, a couple of marines were accused of killing one of their own, because he reported that one of the accused had done something illegal. Tom Cruise comes on the case and finds that the "code" of Colonel Jessup's (Nicholson) marine base at Guantanamo Bay was that all orders must be followed, regardless. Colonel Jessup ordered the accused to do a "code red" on the deceased, which was to rough up the whistle blower. It was discovered that the perpetrators of the accidental killing were ordered by their supreme leaders to commit the illegal act and were "forced" to comply or else they would have been subject to their own discipline for refusing an order--also considered a crime (Keifer Sutherland's character Leuitenant Kendrick famously said)--in their world.
In the Saints case, Paul Tagliabue found similar things to the 1992 movie plot. The Saints players had indeed done something wrong, but due to the undue influence of their superiors, they were compelled to oblige and take part.
Life imitating art as they say. Now the fallout from the defamation of character lawsuit of Jonathan Vilma against current NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will be interesting and we will see if any of the other players wants their own form of vengeance, as all could make the case for loss of income and injury to their careers in different ways. I haven't figured out what movie or book plot this situation will come from, but I will be brushing up on my John Grisham thrillers!
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