St. Tammany Parish resident David Mancina has filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell seeking damages in excess of $5 million on behalf of himself and 2012-13 New Orleans Saints season-ticket holders. The lawsuit is a response to the suspensions handed out to Saints players and coaches for their alleged participation in the Saints' bounty program.

A St. Tammany Parish resident has filed a class action lawsuit against the NFL and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell seeking damages in excess of $5 million on behalf of himself and 2012-13 New Orleans Saints season ticket holders.David J. Phillip, AP file photos

The lawsuit says the season-ticket holders purchased their tickets expecting "the Saints would be capable of competitively fielding a contending team comprised of the finest athletes, and the best coaches, under contract ... or available to them through normal trades and draft choices, without dictatorial, unreasonable, vindictive, and unfounded, interference from the Commissioner and the League, devoid of due process."

Goodell, who suspended Saints coaches Sean Payton and Joe Vitt, General Manager Mickey Loomis and players Jonathan Vilma and Will Smith, did so "without consideration for the rights of the paying ticket holder Plaintiffs," the suit states. 

The league also forced the Saints to give up their 2012 and 2013 second-round draft choices "thereby devastating the quality of the Saints, the value of the tickets purchased by Plaintiff ... and the confidence and emotional attachment of Plaintiff, and the class, to the Saints," the suit says.

Mancina's lawyer, Lawrence Wiedemann, himself a Saints fan but not a season-ticket holder at this time, said he hopes the suit will bring more consideration to NFL fans in the future.

"The fans are a critical part of the NFL," he said. "When it comes to changing the complexion of your team, you have no input. You're not even notified or considered ... that's just a complete blasé attitude."

Wiedemann said he took on the suit because of people expressing aggravation about the Saints situation and how it affected them. He compared it to going to a show, such as a play, where the actors had to be changed at the last minute.

"The players are suing because action has been taken against them without due process, but nobody has considered what effect it's had on the ticket holders," he said. "They go out there and support the team and the league year in and year out and they're just completely ignored."

Wiedemann said the ticket holders have been ignored since the investigation started in 2009.

"In 2012 they cut the guts out of the team," he said. "The tickets you bought have been devalued tremendously and the NFL has given no consideration to the ticket holders that are the life of the NFL. There is no due process."