NEW ORLEANS — Former Jets linebacker Jonathan Vilma was suspended for the entire 2012 season without pay Wednesday as the NFL handed down punishments to four current and former Saints players for their roles in the team’s bounty program.
Packers defensive end Anthony Hargrove, who played for the Saints from 2009-10 was hit with an eight-game ban, and Saints defensive end Will Smith will be forced to sit out four games.
The league also suspended current Browns linebacker Scott Fujita, who played in New Orleans from 2006-09, for three games.
In announcing the penalties, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said, “The evidence clearly showed that the players being held accountable today willingly and enthusiastically embraced the bounty program.”
Vilma, a defensive captain accused of helping start the program alongside former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, voiced his displeasure with the Goodell’s ruling.
“I intend to fight this injustice to defend my reputation, to stand up for my team and my profession and to send a clear signal to the commissioner that the process has failed to the detriment of me, my teammates, the New Orleans Saints and the game,” the veteran linebacker said in a statement.
According to the league’s findings, multiple sources said Vilma offered a $10,000 bounty to any player who knocked out quarterbacks Kurt Warner and Brett Favre during the Saints’ Super Bowl title run in 2009-10.
Vilma played for the Jets from 2004-07.
Smith, who the league said “pledged significant sums to the program pool,” announced Wednesday he would appeal his suspension, saying the accusations were “one-hundred percent false.”
Steelers linebacker James Harrison, who has been a vocal critic of Goodell, called the punishments “ridiculous,” and teammate LaMarr Woodley wrote, “Vilma suspended a whole yr FOR PLAYING FOOTBALL???? Cmon man!!!!!”
The penalties are another massive blow to a Saints organization that has been decimated by the fallout from the bounty system. Head coach Sean Payton was banned for the year, and assistant coach Joe Vitt also was hit with a six-game ban.
Williams, now with the St. Louis Rams, was handed an indefinite suspension.