Kevin Spain of nola.com has reported that he knows of reports that the NFL Players' Association is attempting to block commissioner Roger Goodell's player suspensions in the Bountygate/Pay-for-Performance scandal.
The NFL Players Association has filed a grievance vs. the NFL challenging Commissioner Roger Goodell's authority to suspend New Orleans Saints Jonathan Vilma and Will Smitth, Cleveland's Scott Fujita and Green Bay's Anthony Hargrove, according to reports.
He doesn't name any sources, but promises to bring us more on this later. We'll see if this turns out to be anything.
Stay tuned...
UPDATE: In this bit below, you'll see that Spain is referencing a story from Pro Players Insider:
In a story about the filings on Pro Players Insider, the NFLPA argues that the punishments issued to the players for their actions "violated the [league's] duty of fairness to the players" because the process violated various procedural requirements of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, including limits on Goodell's authority over the matter and failure to disclosure sufficient evidence of the violations.
The report also says that system arbitration filing argues that, under the CBA, authority for any punishments to players for a pay-for-performance program rests with the System Arbitrator, not with Goodell.
I couldn't get a link, but Jason LaCanfora tweets a corroboration:
Jason La Canfora @JasonLaCanfora
Full details on NFLPA's grievance against the NFL on the Saints players case is here, from NFLPA website: http://bit.ly/J0XDns