NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell indicated Wednesday that player discipline for the New Orleans Saints' bounty program was unlikely to be handed down this week.
NFL Network's Steve Wyche took it a step further, saying via a league source that the punishment will not be until next week at the earliest. Wyche writes that the league "does not want to announce player discipline at this point of the week because it wants to celebrate the draft, the NFL's grand showcase for its future stars."
Goodell said the league was in the "final stages" of working on the discipline, and it hopes to hand down punishments "very soon."
As many as 27 Saints players participated in the program. CBSSports.com's Mike Freeman reports the players' union expects only one or two players to be punished, but they would be punished with long suspensions. (Jonathan Vilma is expected to be one of these players.)
The reality is that it's all speculation until Goodell officially hands down the discipline. Remember the speculation about Sean Payton's punishment before it came out? No one saw a full season's suspension coming.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.