Jonathan Vilma may not see a penny from the defamation lawsuit he filed against NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Thursday. But whatever the outcome, the suspended New Orleans Saints linebacker's political capital among his peers is the equivalent of a blank check.

By taking on the powerful chief executive derisively known as "God-dell" to some NFL players, Vilma not only issued a challenge to the commissioner to produce some concrete evidence against the four players disciplined in the Saints' bounty case, but he also took a symbolic shot at Goodell's omnipotence.

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As viewed in NFL circles, a 30-year-old linebacker with creaky knees and little to lose just served God – and a lot of players are celebrating as though Ronnie Lott had just smacked Ickey Woods into last Tuesday.

"What a badass," an offensive player for an NFC team said of Vilma on Thursday afternoon. "He's the man. I think it's nuts, but I love it. He's going after Goodell. He should, too."

A defensive player for an AFC team expressed a similar sentiment, saying, "It's aggressive, and I love it. I'm excited to see what happens. I love the sound of 'Vilma v. Goodell.' This is gonna cement Vilma's name forever."

That neither of the aforementioned players wanted his name cited in this column is not surprising – lawsuit or not, Goodell is still the league's most potent powerbroker and the most powerful commissioner in American professional sports, and no active player wants to risk ending up on the commish's list.

Vilma, however, is in a different category. Staring at a yearlong suspension that could turn out to be career-ending, and publicly adamant that he never paid a teammate to injure an opponent, Vilma extended the battlefront beyond Goodell's fiefdom and into U.S. District Court in New Orleans.

The move is not without risk. In addition to a great deal of money, the suit could cost Vilma further damage to his reputation, and possibly expose him to criminal liability. He'll be forced to answer questions under oath, as will many of his current and former teammates and coaches. If concrete evidence surfaces that Vilma did, in fact, serve as the ringleader of a pay-for-injure operation, he will likely regret that he filed the suit.

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If, however, the evidence – or lack thereof – supports Vilma's contention that he is innocent of the charges for which he was punished, Goodell may wish Vilma had simply pile-driven him into the stadium turf.

"If the ruling is favorable [to Vilma] in any way, it's going to open the floodgates," the AFC player said. "If he prevails, man, that would be sweet."

Said the NFC player: "If Vilma wins? Oh, then he's God. They should just put him as commissioner if that happens."

As I stated earlier this month, I believe the league has yet to show sufficient evidence that Vilma, teammate Will Smith and ex-Saints defenders Scott Fujita and Anthony Hargrove engaged in such a scheme. If Vilma's suit helps compel Goodell to lay those cards on the table, I'm not opposed.

Given that New Orleans linebacker Scott Shanle questioned whether such evidence exists – and numerous sources on the Saints' side of the investigation expressed similar beliefs to me – it's fair to say that Vilma is leading what amounts to an organizational rebellion against the penalties.

Whether he can actually achieve legal satisfaction is another story. The standard of proving defamation against a public figure such as Vilma is relatively stringent, requiring the plaintiff to demonstrate "actual malice" – that intentionally untruthful statements were made, or those which demonstrated reckless disregard for the truth.

The wording in Vilma's lawsuit also suggests that there may be a grey area that could cloud a jury's analysis of the case. When the NFL announced its suspensions of the four players, it stated that Vilma offered $10,000 in cash to any player who could knock Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner out of a 2009 playoff game in New Orleans and made a similar offer regarding Vikings QB Brett Favre before the Saints' NFC championship game victory the following week.

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