Jonathan Vilma and Peter King traded a few shots over Twitter Tuesday after King pointed out that the Saints were signing linebackers to prepare for potential bounty suspensions. The Sports Illustrated NFL writer singled out Vilma with this tweet:
Curtis Lofton, Chris Chamberlain, David Hawthorne. Get the message, Jonathan Vilma?
— Peter King (@SI_PeterKing) April 3, 2012
King sent the message shortly after the Saints signed linebacker David Hawthorne. Vilma played dumb, responding to King “that u know how to type peoples names??” Vilma then called King a blogger, saying he was doing “reckless journalism.”
@SI_PeterKing the nfl investigation has NOTHING to do with ur tweet. You’ve now turned into a blogger who takes shots at players on twitter
— Jonathan Vilma (@JonVilma51) April 4, 2012
King reminded Vilma that his anger was misdirected, saying “It’s the NFL investigation, Jonathan. Not me.”
Vilma is playing dumb here and he is wrong. Vilma was singled out as a player who led the bounty system along with Scott Fujita and Will Smith. Vilma even has a history of participating in bounty systems dating back to college. The Saints wouldn’t be aggressively signing linebackers if they didn’t believe Vilma would be suspended for a significant amount of time. If he can’t see that, then he’s ignoring reality.
