(Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)
The National Football League Players Association said Wednesday that it will fight ex-NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue hearing the appeals of the four players suspended in the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal.
In a statement Wednesday, the NFL Players Association said it will file a motion that asks Tagliabue to recuse himself due to a “conflict of interest.”
On Tuesday, the NFLPA asked Paul Tagliabue to prove that he was impartial enough to act as the objective arbitrator in bounty punishment appeal hearings for Saints defensive end Will Smith, Browns linebacker Scott Fujita and free agent Anthony Hargrove.
Tagliabue was appointed last week when Commissioner Roger Goodell agreed to recuse himself from the appeals process in the Saints’ bounty case.
U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan of New Orleans gave the NFLPA until 6 p.m. ET Wednesday to file motion to ask Tagliabue to recuse himself, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. ESPN had reported the union is planning to meet that deadline.
The basis for the objection includes Taglibue’s employment at Covington and Burling, a law firm that represents the NFL in the bounty litigation. Tagliabue is also considered a potential witness based on the NFL condoning programs that toed the line of “pay for performance” in the 1990s when he was the league’s commissioner.
The hearing is scheduled for Oct. 30.
Goodell re-issued bounty punishment for all four players after an appeals panel asked him to review the initial suspensions announced in March.
