NFL general counsel Jeff Pash said Friday that former New Orleans Saints defensive end Anthony Hargrove, who received an eight-game suspension as part of the NFL's investigation of the Saints' "bounty" program, was not punished for taking or contributing money for hits, but for lying about the program itself.
Pash's comments came in an interview with Mike Florio of PFT Live.
Brandt: Saints will contend in 2012
Despite all the offseason turmoil, the Saints made a huge impression on Gil Brandt with focused team workouts. **More ...**
On Tuesday, Hargrove claimed that a voice heard saying "Bobby, give me my money" on an NFL Films audio from the 2009 NFC Championship Game wasn't his.
"I suppose you could watch anything enough times and come up with different conclusions, but we didn't discipline Anthony Hargrove for taking any money in the context of this program," Pash said. "What that videotape rather clearly demonstrates is two things: One, there was a program and it corroborates rather clearly that there was a program where a player could be rewarded for making a play that resulted in an injury to an opponent ... second, it demonstrates Mr. Hargrove's awareness of the program and his understanding that it existed, and it demonstrates that his statements to our investigators in early 2010 denying the program and saying there was nothing like that in existence were false. That is the basis on which the Commissioner imposed discipline on Mr. Hargrove."
NFL.com's Steve Wyche previously reported that Hargrove's punishment was for lying to NFL investigators.
Hargrove now plays for the Green Bay Packers.
