New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton was suspended for the entire 2012 season and the team was fined $500,000 for operating a bounty program against opponents, under sweeping discipline announced by the NFL on Wednesday. Under the program, the team paid bonuses for knocking opposing players out of a game.
Former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, now with the St. Louis Rams, was suspended indefinitely from the NFL, effective immediately, the league said. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will review Williams’ status at the season and whether to reinstate him, the league said.
The team will also forfeit its second-round draft picks in 2012 and 2013.
Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis was suspended without pay for the first eight regular-season games of the 2012 season, the NFL said. Assistant Head Coach Joe Vitt was suspended without pay for the first six regular-season games, the league said.
One sports analyst, Jim Trotter of Sports Illustrated, said the discipline is “historic.”
…
Do you think that this was an appropriate punishment for the offense, or do you think the NFL was to hard/soft on the team?
Holy shit. That’s most certainly a way to make a statement.
You have to think about all of the new rules that try to avoid unnecessary player injury. So finding out something like this is a HUGE deal for the league. If this isn’t a good way of making an example of a team, I don’t know what is.
I think it is certainly a fair punishment. This was a dirty way to push your players into getting better stats. Steve Breaston has the nerve to say: “Defensive players are always going to go hyard, there are thousands, even millions of dollars n incentives for sack numbers, that not a bounty?”
I have to totally disagree with him. There is a huge difference in going after a quarterback for a sack and going after him to hurt him or knock him out of the game. I mean give me a break, they had rewards for a player being carted off on a stretcher.
My only issue with what they were doing was that in the smallest way, it circumvented the salary cap.
Many defensive players are simply thugs and rednecks who were bred from peewee to destroy, and while many of them wont publicly acknowledge it, they really do want to end the guy in front of thems season. Plenty of other teams have something like this in place and as long as the hits are clean it shouldnt have been a problem. If they were dirty hits (and then repeat offenders) they should have been disciplined accordingly… BUT A SEASON SUSPENSION. Please… if Billacheat only lost a few draft picks, this is ridiculous.
I agree. If there was perks for a good hit and stuff, that is fine but injuring someone? That sounds a bit dirty and glad it was dealt with. I am shocked there hasn’t been any backlash from players yet. I would have figured the players union would have been a close knit community even tho some don’t get along and above something like this.
This kind of bounty thing has got to have been going on for what the last 50 or 60 years? I can picture these old time coaches giving away a steak dinner for a broken leg or something. There’s also no way that only the Saints/Willaims were in on this type of thing. I’m all for giving the players a little incentive on the side to make a big hit or play as long as it’s legal. If you are intentionally going out and trying to end someone’s career, money or no money, you don’t deserve to be in the league.
I think the discipline was so stiff because the team and manager were already once warned about this type of activity. I am suprised though that players let this leak out.
Disagree. It is the players job to try to take out the opposing players on EVERY play. Do you really think a “bounty system” means anything to these players that are making millions of dollars per year?
NHL coaches do almost the same thing when they send bruisers on the ice when it’s not their shift or normal line. Ruff did it against Ottawa years back at the end of the 3rd :tup:
There will always be high fives on the side lines, bounty or not. It makes the game a little more exciting for the players - sorta like betting on the game. The hit is going to be the same regardless of the bounty.
A mutual game where two players agree to fight? I’m pretty sure its always been like that. If anything it is getting worse… “Oh you hit my teammate I have to prove to everyone that I am going to stick up for him” Give me a break - play the fucking game.