National Football League

Fujita: Probe part of 'smear campaign'

Published Jun. 24, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

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Former Saints linebacker Scott Fujita, a union leader with a record of criticizing the NFL's player-safety record, sees elements of a ''smear campaign'' in a bounty investigation that has sullied his reputation.

Some NFL players agree, and question whether Fujita's three-game suspension has something to do with retribution.

''I'm not saying the NFL is intentionally lying,'' Fujita said in an interview with The Associated Press. ''I've been willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that they may have just been working with the information they've been given, even though much of that information was inaccurate and lacked credibility.

''It's their cavalier interpretation of everything that's been way off. They clearly proceeded with a public smear campaign with very little regard for the truth.''

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell could rule on the appeals of Fujita and the other players suspended because of their roles in the bounty program as early as Monday.

Saints linebacker Scott Shanle finds it hard to ignore the symmetry of the NFL portraying Fujita as a hypocrite on player-safety matters after Fujita had done the same thing to the league.

''When you look at Scott, who was here for one season (of the three spanned by the bounty probe), for him to get three games, I just felt like there had to be more of a personal issue with that,'' Shanle said. ''When you look at how outspoken he is and a lot of the issues he tries to address, it probably doesn't sit well with the league.''

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the NFL stands by its finding that Fujita gave ''more than token amounts'' of money to a pool that also rewarded injury-producing hits called ''cart-offs'' and ''knockouts.''

''The process gave all of the players every opportunity to raise arguments and provide any mitigating information,'' Aiello said. ''Scott Fujita unfortunately chose not to avail himself of the process. Nothing that he has asserted in his various public statements undermines the findings of the investigation.''

Fujita, who now plays for Cleveland, was one of four current or former Saints suspended in the bounty probe. Two of them, Jonathan Vilma and Will Smith, still play for New Orleans. The other, Green Bay defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove, left New Orleans after 2010, while Fujita left after 2009, the first season covered by the investigation.

In 2010, Fujita became a member of the NFLPA executive committee, and has since echoed comments by Congresswoman Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) comparing the NFL's 2009 position on concussions' links to brain disease to the way the tobacco industry denied knowledge that smoking caused cancer.

Fujita argued Goodell undermined his own credibility on player-safety matters when he pushed for an 18-game regular season.

He called for the NFL to employ independent neurological consultants after Browns quarterback Colt McCoy was knocked out of a game, but allowed to return, despite later being diagnosed with a concussion.

Browns players say Fujita challenged Goodell's answers to a range of questions including how a lockout would affect players' health coverage when the commissioner visited the team in 2010.

''Scott wasn't scared to ask the tough questions that some of us wouldn't or some of us didn't even know to ask,'' Browns tight end Benjamin Watson said. ''Scott wanted to make sure the commissioner owned up to all that stuff and ... you could tell that Mr. Goodell wasn't comfortable answering some of those questions.''

Former Browns linebacker Eric Barton added, ''Most people in the room were like, this guy (the commissioner) is full of it and Scott just called him out, and it was almost like, `Oh, Scott, you're going to be in trouble.'''

After seeing evidence the NFL presented against him in last week's appeal hearing on the four players' suspensions, Fujita has more questions:

- Why has the NFL linked him to bounties in its public statements, while its disciplinary letter announcing his suspension acknowledges there is no evidence he ''pledged money toward a specific bounty'' on a particular player?

- Why does that same letter state he was a member of the Saints in the 2010 season, when he was with Cleveland? And what does that say about the quality of the investigation?

- If the investigation was going on for parts of three years, why did no one contact him before the league's first report in March?

- Why did Goodell twice call his personal phone after union attorneys notified the NFL they were representing Fujita, meaning Goodell was not supposed to call him without an NFLPA attorney on the line?

Aiello responded that while the NFL never accused Fujita of targeting a specific opponent, his discipline letter clearly stated ''that he contributed a significant sum to the general pool that included payments for nonspecific bounties in the form of `cart-offs' and `knockouts.'''

Fujita was not contacted about the probe earlier, Aiello said, because the league was unable to identify specific players and their roles in the program until late in 2011.

''Every individual that was eventually disciplined was invited to speak to our office prior to any decision on discipline,'' Aiello said. ''None of the players, including Mr. Fujita, agreed to be interviewed during the process.''

Aiello added that Goodell's calls to Fujita were in response to calls Fujita had placed to Goodell, but the NFLPA said Goodell should not have been making personal calls to players facing punishment at that point.

''It's inappropriate. It is completely outside legal conduct rules,'' NFLPA lawyer Heather McPhee said. ''You cannot directly contact a represented party when you know a party's represented and it's especially odd in this case when Roger purports to be the judge. Picture a judge getting on the phone with a defendant or a suspect.''

After the second call, McPhee emailed NFL counsel Jeff Pash and Goodell, saying Fujita would be happy to talk with Goodell with counsel present, but there was no further communication, and Fujita learned days later he'd been suspended.

Fujita said his only chance to speak with Goodell directly came in early March after the release of the initial bounty report, which did not identify players, although Fujita's name had been leaked. Fujita said he called Goodell to explain locker room culture as it relates to tough talk and informal performance incentives, and how it could be misconstrued.

He said Goodell told him then that ''he would have no problem coming down hard on Saints coaches, but that when it comes to players, he's not quite sure what he's got.''

Fujita acknowledges he offered teammates cash for big plays, mainly because ''that's the way it was done when I was a young player and I kind of looked at that as paying it forward.''

But Fujita contends he never contributed to team-organized pools, instead paying pledges directly to teammates. The NFL's current collective bargaining agreement applies only to pools organized by team officials, like the one former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has apologized for running.

According to a transcript AP obtained from the appeal hearing, NFL outside counsel Mary Jo White described an unnamed coach and another witness saying Fujita pledged unspecified sums of cash for ''big plays'' during the 2009-10 playoffs.

The NFL also presented printed reproductions of handwritten notes, which White said show Fujita pledging $1,000 to a pool for sacks and forced fumbles during the regular season, and $2,000 during the playoffs to a ''general pool,'' which she said in part paid for injury-inducing plays.

The note indicated safety Roman Harper, who was not punished, pledged $5,000 to the general pool, and that assistant head coach Joe Vitt pledged $5,000 to knock then-Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre out of the NFC title game.

Hoping to protect those who helped their investigation, the NFL did not present the original notes or identify who wrote them.

''We don't know who wrote the note. We haven't seen original, and the fact that Joe Vitt's name is on it proves how bogus it is,'' Fujita said. ''No way he ever contributed not even $100 for anything. It's not his style.''

Vitt has said the part of the document showing his pledge is false, which he said raises questions about all of the evidence.

However the bounty saga winds up, Fujita said he has no regrets about his aggressive tactics as a union leader.

''I've had a few concussions myself. I have a dear friend (former Saints player Steve Gleason) who has ALS. I have a friend and former mentor (Lew Bush) who died earlier this year. Then there was the tragic death of someone I've admired for so long, Junior Seau,'' Fujita said. ''I can't say for sure that all of these things happened because of football, but I've seen enough to have some concerns. I was elected to fight for these men, so in no way do I regret that.''