In the continuing saga of bountygate, Jonathan Vilma’s legal team has filed a brief in

Not Mike Cerullo’s Mug

support of the removal of Paul Tagliabue from the players’ appeals hearing.

The brief includes the following email–dated November 2, 2011–from former Saints assistant coach Mike Cerullo to NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. The email:

So I have info on Saints Joe Vitt Lying to your NFL Investigator on Bounties from 2010, along with proof!!!

I was there, in the cover up meeting, with players and Joe, I love the NFL and want to work there again, but I am afraid if I tell thge [sic] truth I will never coach again in NFL, But I was fired for a situation that the Saints encourage..

All I want is a Job back in the NFL as a QC Coach anywhere, so If talking to you jepodizes [sic] that I will have to get back to you, but The Saints are a Dirty Organization

Contact me

mike c

The email is meant as support that Mike Cerullo is a former employee with a vendetta against the Saints organization.

Now, I was told by my English teachers that to be taken seriously, I needed good grammar and that I always needed to proofread. I guess in the NFL, if you say what the Commissioner wants to hear, grammar and spelling be damned.

So, what were Cerullo’s motives for sending the email?

The NFL would like to paint a picture of Cerullo as a brave individual who provided testimony about bounties in the Saints organization. Maybe he really had the best intentions when he fired that desperate email to Aiello.

Or maybe Cerullo is a vengeful fello. Isn’t Cerullo just living the dream of anybody who has ever gotten fired? He got to stick it to his former employer.

Cerullo wrote, “I was fired for a situation that the Saints encourage..” Is Cerullo trying to claim that he was fired for going against the Saints’ pay-for-performance program? According to reports, Cerullo was fired for being dishonest to the team. And really, coaches are shuffled around all the time. Cerullo, however, seemed to feel a great injustice had been done to him, and he did not leave on the best of terms with the Saints.

I’m not saying that Cerullo is lying. But, he does come off as a little too eager to get back at the Saints (but only if it doesn’t hurt his long-term career prospects in the NFL).

Cerullo is currently the Director of Football Operations at Princeton. No word on if he is proofreading his writing in the Ivy League.