Bountygate Punishment for the Saints

I wonder what the bounty in the NFL front office was for taking out a whole franchise?

Roger Goodell is definitely going to go down as one of the harshest Commissioners in NFL history. The era in which the players become robots, and the game becomes flag football.

Interesting rhetoric - - but answer this:


Are you and most of your friends ceasing to follow the NFL as it becomes flag football with robots as the participants?

If not, then the NFL and Roger Goodell - - as the commish and overseer of the NFL brand - - don't really care about your rhetoric.

on many other levels in many other avenues, these people would have been fired and faced possible legal action. i don't think it's too harsh. goodell don't play no games

You really think that is deserved ?? You gotta be getting me man .. this is football ... 99% of the NFL players don't think this is deserved .. this is by far the most BS move the God-dell has ever done ... the fact that SpyGate didn't get the hoodie suspended and this blows a team away for a YEAR .. holy s**T man this is so over the top considering every single team does this is some way form or fashion ... I bet when GW was here and Area51 was laying down beatdowns you probably said, yeah you know what this is too much I hope they get the hammer laid down on them .. boo hoo on these hits .. give me a break dude ... football is heading down a real weird path if we keep putting skirts on these guys .. that's why tackling sucks and defenses get smoked .. I'm sorry but I love a good ass mammoth hit on a QB .. I feel bad for the Saints ... I also feel for the Skins/Boys with this Salary Cap BS .. the Shield is out of control with power.


Can you cite the survey that shows 99% of the players think this is wrong? Chris Kluwe's Twitter feed says he agrees with it. Are there 98 other Twitter feeds from players who say this is nonsense - - in addition to Drew Brees?

Comparing this to Spygate is interesting but it is apples and oranges. No one was injured based on Spygate. AND, Belichick and the Pats never lied to the league about what they were doing or had done. Their argument was that their actions obeyed the letter of the rule if not the spirit of the rule. The Saints were warned multiple times about this; they lied about its existence; then they did nothing to stop it.

With regard to your ranting over the "pussification" of pro football, the NFL will not even begin to care until it sees revenues decrease significantly over a period of time. Until then, the trend is for more player safety - - even though you don't like it. Given that you don't like it, the NFL is telling you very politely to take your sports interests elsewhere. They are betting that you are not going to do that; they are betting that after you post your screed here and on a few other message boards, you will continue to tune into games, buy official team logo "stuff" and attend a game or two when you can. Only you can prove them wrong...

Mr. Commish needs to really have some of his power stripped away. The guy is an idiot. What the Saints did was wrong. But you're going to take away peoples way of making a living? For something that's been going on since the start of football? Really? The owners need to step in here and get this clown under control. It's like Goddell thinks he freakin' God or something... like he's trying too hard to prove that he's some kind of tough guy, with his fines, suspensions, can't hit wr's, QB's and what not. Enough already.

If you think that the Management Council - - made up of owners - - did not know how all this was proceeding and what was coming down BEFORE it hit the wires, you are living in a delusion. They knew and they approved - - tacitly.

I havent read everything there is on this but imo giving an incentive to take a player out doesnt mean encouraging your players to play dirty.

Imo it means encouraging hard hits within the rules.

Hearing alot of players comment on radio, theyve all hinted at some kind "bounty" on every team.

punishment seems really harsh and arbitrary. Two game suspension and a draft pick would have been fine.

An legit appeal process should be put in place for discipline actions.

The severity of the punishment does not fit the crime. This is more about the upcoming concussion lawsuits and how the NFL treats players like a disposable commodity than actual human beings all while owners are making big money.
They are trying to make up for decades of past wrong doing in one incident - Saints Bounty gate.
Williams and the Saints franchise are the fall guys. Goddell has gone too far to try punish one team and make the point of, 'see we have changed our ways.'
The punishment should have been:

Williams one year suspension
Payton and Loomis half of a season
$500,000 or more in fines
No loss of draft picks.
Players involved suspended a game or two.
This punishment has ruined a good an entertaining franchise.
They did not cheat or throw a game or gamble on football ala Pete Rose.

I think Williams punishment is fitting, but Payton's could be scaled back some. Unfortunate about the draft picks though. But oh well. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time, eh? Goodell seems to pull no punches.

I thought Williams should've gotten 6 games and Payton 2. The GM should've gotten 1 or 2. That's it.


...thats a joke!

“We are all accountable and responsible for player health and safety and the integrity of the game,” Commissioner Goodell said. “We will not tolerate conduct or a culture that undermines those priorities. No one is above the game or the rules that govern it. Respect for the game and the people who participate in it will not be compromised.”

“A combination of elements made this matter particularly unusual and egregious,” Commissioner Goodell continued. “When there is targeting of players for injury and cash rewards over a three-year period, the involvement of the coaching staff, and three years of denials and willful disrespect of the rules, a strong and lasting message must be sent that such conduct is totally unacceptable and has no place in the game.”

The really key element as we talked about before (and what separates this in a big way from SpyGate) is that the Saints denied this for 3 years. Confronted, denied. Confronted again, admitted said they would do something about it...did nothing. Saints could have avoided harsher punishment had they admitted right away



....seems this needs to be repeated over and over!