When the Gregg Williams audio tape surfaced last month, it elevated the New Orleans Saints' bounty scandal to a new level of public awareness and lowered the cries of unduly harsh punishment to a murmur.





Sean Pamphilon, the filmmaker who released the recording of the ex-Saints defensive coordinator's speech the night before the team's January playoff defeat to the San Francisco 49ers, called it a "smoking gun," but really, it was more than that: Williams' words took people inside a culture of amplified rhetoric and calls for violence and eliminated any doubt that a line had been crossed.





As a result, the NFL-imposed suspension of Williams – and those of Saints coach Sean Payton, assistant head coach Joe Vitt and general manager Mickey Loomis – became very difficult to dispute. Anyone in a position of authority who tolerated or perpetuated such an environment, let alone who lied to league officials and ignored their directives, was clearly culpable and, for want of a better term, cruisin' for a bruisin' from commissioner Roger Goodell.





[ Dan Wetzel: New Orleans Saints get off relatively light with player bounty suspensions ]

Yet Wednesday's suspensions of current New Orleans defenders Jonathan Vilma and Will Smith, and former Saints Scott Fujita (now with the Cleveland Browns) and Anthony Hargrove (now with the Green Bay Packers), don't rise to that standard. As a result, I can understand why the punished players, many of their peers, NFL Players Association executives and Saints fans are frustrated by the severity of the penalties.





Unless and until the NFL produces unassailable evidence that these men actively participated in a pay-for-injure operation that caused tangible consequences to Saints opponents – or Pamphilon shares another tape implicating the men in question – I'll be somewhat skeptical about the depth of their involvement.





Or, to borrow from an iconic (if fictional) Arizona Cardinals wideout, Show me the money.





"If you have actual evidence of money changing hands and guys actually getting injured – if that exists – then all the suspensions are justified," Saints linebacker Scott Shanle told me Wednesday afternoon. "I think they have nothing to show. If you have evidence to show, at this point, wouldn't you show it? I don't think they have anything."





Shanle, a ninth-year veteran not known for making controversial public statements, may sound to some like a frustrated and semi-delusional player sticking up for his friends, but I wouldn't be so quick to marginalize him. For one thing, I've talked to numerous players on the Saints, and with other organizations, who basically share his sentiments.





[ Related: Jonathan Vilma found out about his year-long suspension from 'SportsCenter' ]

I've also had conversations with several knowledgeable sources who question the way the league conducted its investigation, including one person interviewed by an NFL security official before the league released its report. I've heard stories of disingenuous promises and of investigators who actively sought only information that they deemed incriminating while ignoring any evidence to the contrary.





Obviously, the people with whom I've spoken have an interest in portraying the penalties as unjust, and I'm certainly not in position to judge the legitimacy of the NFL's investigation. The findings could be airtight, paper-thin or somewhere in between.





The league issued a statement Wednesday which declared that "the evidence supporting today's disciplinary decisions is based on extensive documentation and interviews with multiple sources. The information was developed by NFL Security, working with independent forensic analysts, and the disciplinary decisions are each based on evidence that has been independently corroborated by multiple sources."





On Thursday the league trotted out Mary Jo White, a former prosecutor retained by the league to provide an "independent review" of the evidence, to speak to reporters, and she described the investigation as "thorough, fair and robust."





Conversely, Vilma and Smith issued public statements strongly proclaiming their innocence, while sources close to Fujita have done the same to me in prior conversations. (Fujita acknowledged in March to Sports Illustrated's Peter King that he made individual payments to teammates for performance-related bonuses such as interceptions and fumble recoveries.) "Scott Fujita never put up any money to injure anybody," Shanle insisted on Wednesday. "It didn't happen."

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