With a dramatic end coming to Bountygate yesterday — the explosive scandal that has rocked the NFL for much of the last year and adversely altered the success of an entire franchise, as well as the lives of one of the league’s best head coaches and several prominent players — we are left with this question: Who won?
The answer is easy: nobody.
Former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue yesterday overturned the suspensions of four current and former Saints players in the league’s bounty investigation.
It was a surprising overrule of current commissioner Roger Goodell’s decision before this season to suspend the four players for various amounts of games.
But it hardly was a victory for the players — linebackers Jonathan Vilma and Scott Fujita, and defensive ends Will Smith and Anthony Hargrove — whose names are forever tainted and whose potential earning and marketability power was reduced in a league with the shortest average career span.
And it surely was not a win for Goodell, whose reputation as a tough-guy disciplinarian took a major hit. Goodell has been widely criticized by players for the way he acts as judge-and-jury in these matters, and this ruling shows that he reacted too swiftly and strongly with his suspensions.
The Saints, who have played this season without those four players as well as head coach Sean Payton, who was suspended for the entire year, and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who was suspended indefinitely, aren’t winners in this. They were one of the NFL’s elite teams before the scandal ripped them apart and left them at 5-8 this season, well out of the playoff picture.
Saints fans certainly are not winners in this, having watched their team fall from grace.
So there were no winners here.
Though he vacated the suspensions, Tagliabue did rule that three of the players engaged in conduct “detrimental’’ to the league, saying they participated in an informal performance program that rewarded key plays, including hard tackles, and those acts could lead to fines. The only one of the four players completely exonerated was Fujita, who is now with the Browns.
Tagliabue, too, stressed the team’s coaches were very much involved. Their suspensions remain intact.
Tagliabue, Goodell’s former mentor who was assigned by Goodell to handle the players’ appeals to the league, “affirmed the factual findings of Goodell” to the point the players were deemed to be in the wrong for their alleged involvement in the pay-to-injure program, league spokesman Greg Aiello said.
Saints quarterback Drew Brees tweeted congratulations to the vindicated players, writing, “Congratulations to our players for having the suspensions vacated. Unfortunately, there are some things that can never be taken back.’’
Steelers defensive back Ryan Clark, who has been an outspoken critic of Goodell, delivered this message on his Twitter account: “Good old Paul Tagliabue!! Lol!! I love it. All I can say is I love it. Carry on.”
The NFL Players Association also was pleased with Tagliabue’s findings, saying in part in this statement: “Vacating all discipline affirms the players’ unwavering position that all allegations the League made about their alleged ‘intent-to-injure’ were utterly and completely false.”
The NFL, of course, saw the Tagliabue ruling in a different light, saying in a statement it had “respect’’ for Tagliabue’s decision, but adding, “The decisions have made clear that the Saints operated a bounty program in violation of league rules for three years, that the program endangered player safety. Strong action was taken in this matter to protect player safety and ensure that bounties would be eliminated from football.”
None of the players sat out any games because of suspensions, because they were allowed to play while initial appeals were pending. Vilma, however, is on record that, wanting to clear his name, he plans to pursue a defamation lawsuit against Goodell in federal court.
Shortly before the regular season, the initial suspensions were thrown out by an appeals panel created by the league’s collective bargaining agreement. Goodell then reissued them, with some changes, and now those have been dismissed for good by Tagliabue’s ruling.
Goodell is scheduled to speak today at the conclusion of the owners’ meeting in Dallas.
mark.cannizzaro@nypost.com