The NFL came down hard on the New Orleans Saints on Wednesday.
Saints coach Sean Payton has been suspended for one year, former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was suspended indefinitely, general manager Mickey Loomis was suspended for the first eight regular-season games, the team was fined $500,000 and lost two second-round draft picks (one in 2012 and '13) as a result of a bounty program conducted by the team during the 2009-11 seasons that targeted opposing players.
Saints assistant coach Joe Vitt also was suspended six games and fined $100,000. The NFL said in its statement that the suspensions for Payton, Loomis and Vitt are without pay.
Payton's suspension is effective April 1. Commissioner Roger Goodell will meet with Williams after the 2012 season and determine the coach's status.
If Payton is suspended for 1 year, you have to guess Williams is going to be suspended for at least part of the following year if not more. Curious who is going to be the interim coach in N.O. and who is going to be the DC in STL.
5 comments:
Thank you Roger Goodell. This is well deserved. Greg Williams should never be allowed to coach in the NFL again.
JSR is just mad because the Saints beat up on Favre in the NFC Championship a couple years back.
Although I don't agree that Double G should be kicked out of the league, I believe a harsh penalty is necessary. I don't think Double G intended to create a bounty system, but by allowing this payment-for-injury system to exist, he exposed the team and the league to a lot of legal risks.
I feel bad for Jeff Fisher. His team is the greatest victim here. The Saints won a Super Bowl, in part due to this program that Payton and Double G allowed to persist. The Rams, on the other hand, got screwed without even knowing what was going on.
Agree that JSR is bitter about Saints and Favre in the NFC Championship game.
It was dumb to institute the "bounty" system but again all defensive players are looking for that big shot - bounty system or not. If Double G was having his players practice illegal hits or tactics, then he should absolutely never coach again. However, I highly doubt that he did that. It seems like the "bounty" system was put in place to incentive/reward aggressiveness and not encourage cheap/illegal shots. Again, many of his former players have come to his defense and praised him for his coaching abilities.
The problem for Goodell and the NFL is they can't afford to have their business/brand tarnished and they needed to send a strong message.
The whole thing is unfortunate.
Correction: Favre and Rodgers were targeted as the official report highlights.
Its really not just me that's bitter ( I am because of the 2009 NFC championship game in which despite this BS, Favre had that defense on the ropes at the end of the game with a chance to win it). Regardless of what the sport of football is and its physical nature, there is no tolerance for promoting/rewarding the physical injuring of a player/person. So you guys can say all you want that Goodell did this to save the face of the NFL, but if you think about it in terms of just being professional or even just being human (as opposed to an animal), then Goodell did the right thing by punishing these fools. On top of that if he was just doing it to save face, his punishment would not have been so severe for the people surrounding Gregg Williams.
Of course it would be severe for all involved. The NFL wants this to go away as fast as possible. That is why they have exonerated the Jags, Skins, Titans, and Bills. I'm sure that Williams had similar systems at these places when he coached there. The NFL does not want to go back any further and drag this thing on.
They also punished the Saints harshly because they are the example that if anyone else is doing this or thinking about doing this better think twice. The other thing is the NFL probed the Saints and they denied that it was happening that is another reason why it is worse.
Was listening to Matt Bowen (former S for the Skins and player for Williams) and he said that the reward was more of a petty cash system set up by the players with Williams consent. Again, it was a token amount of money and more of a hard hat type of trophy that went to best player on D (similar ot a game ball). Bowen enjoyed the system. BTW - he is now a columnist for media in Chicago.
LaVar Arrington doesn't remember a system being put in place but he remembers player only meetings where the players talked about laying people out and knocking guys out. Again, I still remember in high school football, we talked about taking guys out - not illegally but just hitting them as hard as we could. We even talked about doing it to the offensive guys on our own team. It's the nature of the game and the minds of defensive players. As strange as it sounds to people and even myself today, it's the way it works.
Again, I believe I heard reports of Williams slapping down $15K telling his defense that this goes to the guy that takes Brad Johnson out of the game. If that is the case, it's wrong. If he is teaching his players to hit illegally or do things illegally, it is wrong.
What makes the punishment so severe is that the Saints lied to Goodell (the NFL) about it when they were being probed. It's like I tell my kids. If you do something wrong but tell me about it, I may get angry but I will be proud that you told me the truth. If you do something wrong and lie about it and I find out about it, it's going to be much worse.
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