I appreciate Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma's resolve in dealing with the fallout from BountyGate and his continued insistence of innocence. His active pushback is probably the reason why his (plus Will Smith, Anthony Hargrove and Scott Fujita's) suspension was overturned. He responded like a cornered canine, with teeth showing and saliva dripping. To what level he was involved is irrelevant, his commitment to responding with vigor is what I'm speaking about. I thought it was great. However, his latest move is garbage. A producer at ESPN reached out to one of his former teammates from the Jets for a character profile to run on the network. Vilma got wind of the request and responded by tweeting out the producer’s personal information, including his email address and phone number.
What, exactly, is the point of lashing out at a guy who is just doing his job? Interview requests go out all the time, and, generally, people who are good friends never say anything negative or inflammatory. If they do, you respond to that particular person. What Vilma did is basically shoot the messenger for doing something that’s likely required of his job responsibilities.
It’s mega-weak. Let's just say that Vilma didn’t like being profiled for a story; ok, fair enough. Well, just call the guy or email him or do whatever and explain to him that while you understand he has a job to do, you don’t appreciate your friend being grilled about your character. That would have been the mature thing to do. What Vilma did was douchebag-esque. You don’t put the next man’s info out there, not in this era, when any of your Twitter followers can show up at his house uninvited. People are too crazy for that. You don’t put anyone in that position because they asked for an interview. No matter what would have come out from that piece, it’s not more damaging than this situation right here. Simply put, Vilma played himself. And all that moral authority that he had? He played that too.
