SBC Sports Betting News: Ruling In BountyGate Appeal

[Freddy Wills]

The big breaking story in the sports world is something that won't just reshape the New Orleans Saints; it will change the way opponents try to counter them. A season has been altered.

Arbitration Decision Will Have A Ripple Effect On The National Football League

You know that experts are furiously recalibrating the odds they've set for various games and teams in the wake of the sports story that has caught the NFL's attention. Various across the country will naturally shift the calculus in professional football for 2012 after a three-member appellate panel ruled on Friday, Sept. 7, that the NFL must reinstate Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith, Scott Fujita, and Anthony Hargrove, four New Orleans Saints players (Fujita is now with the Cleveland Browns; Hargrove is an unsigned free agent) implicated in the BountyGate scandal that caused Saints executives and coaches to be suspended.

Anyone who knows how to break down a can tell you what this means for the 2012 season and the football betting considerations that are part of it. First off, New Orleans immediately becomes a much more viable Super Bowl contender in the NFC. The Saints' defense will no longer be as thin as it was once expected to be. Vilma is the heart of the team's linebacker corps, so his presence on the field, once he heals from an injury (it shouldn't keep him out of the lineup for more than two weeks at this point), should make the Saints a lot better. Smith's formidable physical makeup at the defensive end position will add to the Saints' defensive heft and make New Orleans the favorite in the NFC South Division. Indeed, the Atlanta Falcons' perceived advantage over and against the Saints has diminished – if not completely evaporated – due to this course of events.
The Cleveland Browns will be helped by this story. Fujita couldn't practice with the team as long as the NFL-imposed ban was in place, but now that the ban has been lifted and he has been reinstated, he can play for the Browns this season, giving an undermanned Cleveland team a timely boost. Hargrove will help the team he lands with, adding one more twist to this larger series of developments.

Wire-service reports said that "the appeals panel consisted of retired federal Judge Fern Smith of San Francisco, retired federal Judge Richard Howell of New York, and Georgetown professor James Oldham. It met in New York last week to hear arguments from the NFL Players Association, which appealed (NFL Special Master Stephen) Burbank's ruling that (NFL Commissioner Roger) Goodell had the authority to hear and rule on the players' appeals of their suspensions. NFL attorneys had asked the panel to affirm Burbank's ruling, but the panel sided in large part with the union." It is very much worth noting that this ruling, beyond its effects on games played in the NFL's 2012 season, could influence future suspensions handed down by Goodell in various situations, something that will also impact the way sports betting assessments are made. for more on the latest sports news and information.