Independent Counsel: Bounty Payments Were Made A former U.S. attorney hired by the NFL to evaluate its investigation of the New Orleans Saints' bounty program said Thursday the evidence shows players received payments for hits on targeted opponents. Mary Jo White said in a conference call that evidence in the league's investigation of the three-year pay-for-pain system provided "an unusually strong record" and came from people with "firsthand knowledge and corroborated by documentation." When asked twice whether any players actually were paid for hits, White confirmed they were without going into specifics. She added that most of the money in the bounty scheme was provided by the players. "Without them, there wouldn't been a bounty program," she said. White, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, was asked last December by the NFL to examine the evidence. "The factual basis for the sanctions is quite strong in my opinion," she said. You must safeguard the identity of people that provide information to you in order to protect them, and also to encourage others in the future to come forward with evidence of wrongdoing. This is certainly not a one-on-one, he-said, she-said record at all. This is multiple independent sources. FILE - This July 28, 2011 file photo shows New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma answering questions during a news conference at the NFL football team's training facility, in Metairie, La. Vilma has been suspended without pay for the entire 2012 season by the NFL, one of four players punished for participating in a pay-for-pain bounty system. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's ruling was announced Wednesday, May 2, 2012 . (AP Photo/Bill Haber, File) Close White saw no merit in complaints from the players' union that it had not received, "detailed or specific evidence from the league of specific players' involvement in an alleged pay-to-injure program." "The players sanctioned all activity and enthusiastically embraced this program," White said. They always had the option to say no. They didn't say no. It is no defense that coaches were involved in it, this was an individual responsibility each player has and each coach has. Each player had the responsibility to say no to this program and they didn't do that. They obviously had the option to report this to the union and they didn't do that. NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith and Domonique Foxworth, the recently elected union president, are in New Orleans talking with Saints players. The four current and former New Orleans players suspended - linebacker Jonathan Vilma for the 2012 season; defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove, now with Green Bay, for eight games; defensive end Will Smith, for four games; linebacker Scott Fujita, now with Cleveland and a member of the union's executive board, for three games - were given three days to appeal when Commissioner Roger Goodell handed down the punishment Wednesday. Union representatives did not immediately offer comment on White's statements, nor on when appeals might be filed. The NFLPA said after the penalties were handed down that it would pursue all options on the Saints players' behalf. AP Sports Writer Brett Martel in New Orleans contributed to this story.