Saints apparently had bounties out on opposing players

[Monty]

Adam Schefter reporting that an NFL Investigation reviewed 18, 000 documents totaling more than 50,000 pages regarding allegations that the Saints had a bounty programme.

The programme supposedly administered by DC Gregg Williams, with other defensive assistants having knowledge of it, had bounties out on opposing players and of the 27 defensive players on their staff evidence suggests 22 took part.

So far the players that the Saints put bounties on include Brett Favre and Kurt Warner. If I understand it correctly in essence this programme would have rewarded players bonuses for certain hits on these players.

 

[Monty]

Possible penalties could include fines, suspensions and draft pick forfeitures.

 

[Monty]

Peter King Tweet:

Peter King ‏ @SI_PeterKing NFL: Saints owner Tom Benson directed GM Mickey Loomis that bounty program be discontinued. NFL says Loomis did not follow Benson's orders.

 

[Monty]

Adam Schefter ‏ @AdamSchefter NFL investigation of Saints began in 2010 when allegations were made that Saints targeted QBs such as Brett Favre and Kurt Warner.

 

[Monty]

Most shocking revelation so far

Bob Glauber ‏ @BobGlauber Saints bounty system: players paid $1,500 for "knockout," $1,000 for a “cart-off,” per NFL investigation. Payments increased in playoffs.

 

[Pariah]

So long as the hits that earned the players their bounty were legal, I don't care.

JMHO

 

[Monty]

So long as the hits that earned the players their bounty, I don't care.

JMHO

I think a lot of fans will see it differently. I think the commissioners office will come down hard on the Saints.

I think this sums it up well from Kent Somers:
Kent Somers ‏ @kentsomers Commissioner will hammer the Saints. Can't preach player safety and let this go with a light penalty.


and profootball focus

ProFootballFocus.com ‏ @ProFootbalFocus Thr @nflcommish's defining obsession has been player safety, he's going to go to town on the Saints over the bounties

 

[clif]

Not shocked one bit.

 

[clif]

the way they went after warner and favre.

 

[ARZCardinals]

This behavior is deplorable in the game. A NFL team being so dumb as to have it written down is disgusting IMHO. Play the game hard and strong, but to aim for injuries is disgusting. Players work their asses off a lifetime to get to the NFL and to have some dope go to destroy someones entire livelyhood is wrong.

I'd take two 1st round picks - this years and next. Add to it a $15 million dollar fine to the team and $5 million dollar fine to the HC. Other coaches directly involved should receive fines as well. Any player they pull tape of should be retroactively fined or suspended (so long as that is allowed by the current contract) I wouldn't be upset if they took their entire draft this year. The fan base would then let the coach know every day it wasn't worth it and the ownership will take a huge hit for allowing it.

Roger MUST throw the book at them....not only did they not follow the rules they published their intent. Roger has been looking for player safety when one of the 32 teams has been 100% in the opposite direction of the league.

This is more serious than any stomping by Suh.....this is the integrity of the game and the message the NFL must send to every owner, player and coach. Their message must be....follow the rules or you will pay the price....and the price will be big. If the fine isn't worthy they will have repeat offenders.

final thought after thinking about it: If this was led by the HC - he should receive a 4 game suspension as well - if not be fired by the league. The league should have the right to fire him based on this...they probably don't.

The message to their fans should be: We hate you for doing that....now look at the cost to our team!

 

[Monty]

This behavior is deplorable in the game. A NFL team being so dumb as to have it written down is disgusting IMHO. Play the game hard and strong, but to aim for injuries is disgusting. Players work their asses off a lifetime to get to the NFL and to have some dope go to destroy someones entire livelyhood is wrong.

I'd take two 1st round picks - this years and next. Add to it a $15 million dollar fine to the team and $5 million dollar fine to the HC. Other coaches directly involved should receive fines as well. Any player they pull tape of should be retroactively fined or suspended (so long as that is allowed by the current contract)

Roger MUST throw the book at them....not only did they not follow the rules they published their intent. Roger has been looking for player safety when one of the 32 teams has been 100% in the opposite direction of the league.

This is more serious than any stomping by Suh.....this is the integrity of the game and the message the NFL must send to every owner, player and coach. Their message must be....follow the rules or you will pay the price....and the price will be big. If the fine isn't worthy they will have repeat offenders.

This. More or less covers exactly what i'm thinking. Though I think the punishment could be a lot more severe. As several of the NFL reporters have pointed out player safety has been at the forefront of Roger Goeddell's policy making and rule changes and this is the biggest infringement on that in his era. He will and should make a major example of the Saints.

 

[clif]

I wonder if Moose is going to tell us it's a clean hit now.

 

[BillsCarnage]

the way they went after warner and favre.

My thoughts exactly when I saw this story.

The hit on Warner in the PO game seemed like it was a tad more aggressive than needed to be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC1T1tAbA4s

Not to mention Farves thighs after the following PO game.
http://backseatfan.com/2010/02/brett-favre-injury-pictures/

Now that Williams is w/ th Rams it'll be interesting to see if the NFL keeps an eye on him.

 

[joeshmo]

So long as the hits that earned the players their bounty, I don't care.

JMHO

I find it to be highly outrageous IMO. Not for all the reasons already brought up such as making safety a priority and stuff like that but, It is a way to circumvent the salary cap. It is performance based pay that is not counting towards the teams cap.

Expect the GM, HC, and Gregg Williams the architect of this pay system to be punished with fines at the minimum.

 

[Monty]

I find it to be highly outrageous IMO. Not for all the reasons already brought up such as making safety a priority and stuff like that but, It is a way to circumvent the salary cap. It is performance based pay that is not counting towards the teams cap.

Expect the GM, HC, and Gregg Williams the architect of this pay system to be punished with fines at the minimum.

Good point.

Though I think the sneaky salary cap circumvention issue will play a role, I think the focus of the NFL, and the commissioners office in particular, will be on the one issue that they have emphasized so much over the past 5 years or so: protecting player safety.

If the NFL is willing to go as far as moving the kickoff line from the 30 to the 35 for the sake of player safety, they cannot and will not allow such an organizational disregard for player safety to go by without making a huge example of it.

The outcome of this could be catastrophic for the Saints franchise for a quite awhile.

 

[az jam]

Good point.


The outcome of this could be catastrophic for the Saints franchise for a quite awhile.

It should be. The whole organization is to blame as they are saying the owner the GM, HC, DC and players knew.

 

[clif]

It should be. The whole organization is to blame as they are saying the owner the GM, HC, DC and players knew.

Not only knew about it. They were told to stop and ignored the NFL. Man it pisses me off because it seemed so obvious that they were looking to knock people out.

 

[Monty]

It should be. The whole organization is to blame as they are saying the owner the GM, HC, DC and players knew.

I completely agree, I was just pointing out the likely ramifications of this scandal.

 

[SoCal Cardfan]

This program may have very likely cost us 1 extra year with a competent QB.

 

[Monty]

This program may have very likely cost us 1 extra year with a competent QB.

Kurt Warner on 620 Ktar said he had made his decision to retire before that game, but that may just be lip talk.

I dont think we'll ever know.

 

[Monty]

Good question asked by Somers:

Kent Somers ‏ @kentsomers Seriously, if NFL has conducted thorough investigation, etc., why is it waiting to announce penalties?


He ponders whether it may that the NFL is trying to guage media outrage before deciding what punishment to serve.

 

[joeshmo]

Sando has some interesting things to say about this. Gregg Williams may have got this idea from Jeff Fisher, which means Jeff Fisher and his other coach from his coaching tree Schwartz of the Lions are also put on notice.

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/id/59964/saints-bounty-system-and-the-rams

 

[Kel Varnsen]

I don't recall even hearing rumors about this investigation.

Wow.

 

[Azlen]

I find it to be highly outrageous IMO. Not for all the reasons already brought up such as making safety a priority and stuff like that but, It is a way to circumvent the salary cap. It is performance based pay that is not counting towards the teams cap.

Expect the GM, HC, and Gregg Williams the architect of this pay system to be punished with fines at the minimum.

I thought I had read that it was player funded. If that's the case, is that still considered salary cap circumvention?

 

[clif]

I thought I had read that it was player funded. If that's the case, is that still considered salary cap circumvention?

yeah because Gregg Williams and other coaches contributed to the pot.