NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith is nothing if not frank, which makes his Friday comments on the NFL's bounty investigation somewhat redundant.

"Frankly, I believe that the investigators let the commissioner down," Smith told NBC's Pro Football Talk Live.

Smith says he plans to talk with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell about his objections to the investigation, and urges the league to reopen the case. Smith says he doesn't believe Saints defenders tried to injure opponents.

"It's inconsistent with what our players stand for," Smith said. "It's inconsistent with everything we've done to make this game safer."

Specifically, Smith isn't buying the video the league says shows Anthony Hargrove saying "give me my money" in reference to Brett Favre (injured in the NFC Championship game), because Hargove's mouth is obscured. In a letter to the NFL, Smith notes that the NFL did not provide the identity of the author of a hand-written note the league says is evidence of Saints bounties.

The league suspended four players as a result of the probe: Hargrove, Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith and Scott Fujita.

"Our hope," says Smith, "and certainly it will be a message from me to the league soon, is that given all of the recantations and all of the contradictions and, as exemplified by the video, all of the things that are clearly not clear, shouldn't we be taking another hard look about where this investigation failed the commissioner?

"Virtually everyone is wondering whether this process has been fair and whether we've achieved our goal of finding the truth. We shouldn't be in a world where players are being punished for something that is inconclusive and unclear."