Saints paying Bounty.... in deep trouble, due to PC

Saints bounty fund could them in trouble....

ESPN's Adam Schefter was the first to report that the New Orleans Saints are alleged to have maintained a "bounty system" through at least the 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons. The NFL's security department believes that between 22 and 27 defensive players on the team, as well as at least one assistant coach, maintained a program funded primarily by players that rewarded tackles inflicting injuries on opposing players, resulting in those players being removed from a game.

Reportedly, not only did then-defensive coordinator Gregg Williams (now with the St. Louis Rams) had full knowledge of (and contributed to) the bounty fund, but Bob Glauber of Newsday indicated that head coach Sean Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis knew of the practice and refused to put a stop to it when team owner Tom Benson told them to. According to Schefter, the reports from league security have been corroborated by several independent sources.

and

Offensive and Defensive lines.... look at bounty fund differently

News of the New Orleans Saints' "bounty fund" made its way around the league quickly. Players became aware that they were targeted for bounties, and that their injury might have resulted in a payout of $1,000 or more to a Saints player.

and

Goodell: Saints violated bounty rule

NEW YORK (AP) -- New Orleans Saints players and at least one assistant coach maintained a bounty pool of up to $50,000 the last three seasons to reward game-ending injuries inflicted on opposing players, including Brett Favre and Kurt Warner, the NFL said Friday. "Knockouts" were worth $1,500 and "cart-offs" $1,000, with payments doubled or tripled for the playoffs.

Read more: sportsillustrated.cnn.com...

and

Saints Looking at severe punishment

The National Football League on Friday found the New Orleans Saints guilty of a wide-ranging system of bounty payments to between 22 and 27 defensive players from 2009 through 2011, and player-safety-conscious commissioner Roger Goodell could bring the hammer down very hard on the franchise.

Read more: sportsillustrated.cnn.com...

My whole point here as I read these is...

So what...

What I got...

Saints players and a coach or two put money into pot...

payed for:
each player carried off field
each player injured and removed from game


claims a few of the hits where late and resulted in permanent injuries


speculation the league will punish the "Saints"


My question is what for....

It sounded like the coach and players found a way to encourage spectacular performances...... Now if it is a late hit, there are rules to punish for this... and they where....

so if the hits left are good hits, how is it wrong... the vicious late hits are already penalized...

In football, the whole idea is to defeat the other team... and yes, get the other players hard....For the millions of dollars per year they get (even hundreds of thousands) they can suck it up.... quit whining....

What the players did is actually a good idea... motivation of your teammates with cash.....

Out of all of this a single football did redeem himself...

Saints looking at severe bounty

Farve put it best

Before the 2009 NFC Championship Game, Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma offered any defensive teammate $10,000 in cash to knock then-Vikings quarterback Brett Favre out of the game. Favre was hit viciously several times in the game. Favre told SI.com Friday evening: "I'm not pissed. It's football. I don't think anything less of those guys."

Read more: sportsillustrated.cnn.com...

Wow, thats pretty nuts. Lifelong saints fan here. Didn't really help much cause their defense kinda sucked last year.

reply to post by mayabong


I think it is being blown out of proportion too...

if it was such a hit squad type thing... why do the Saints only have one SB ring.....

Huge Saints fan, and I respect Favre for his take on it, however, I am furious at Gregg Williams for not only allowing, but encouraging this.
While I do think that creating incentives for outstanding play is a good idea, purposefully trying to injure someone is not cool at all.
As the other poster said, it certainly didn't seem to help the Defense anyway. They've played pee poor defense in 2010 and 2011. And now i'm going to have to hear even more crying by Vikings fans(because of the allegedly dirty hits on Favre in the 2009 NFC champ game). Not to mention the annoying Falcons fans who are jealous that the Saints have a much better team and cry and whine about whatever they can, whenever possible.

So now, G.Williams bolts for another team and brings this on the Saints' heads while they are trying to hold on to some of their best free agents, inc. Drew Brees.
Roman Harper and Jonathan Vilma need to be gone. They don't fit the new DC's style anyway and not getting rid of them just looks bad.

This sucks. We'll see how bad the League hits them with draft picks, fines, and suspensions. Bad timing with free agency and the draft coming up. Pfffffft

It's not really due to PC as much as it is due to Greed. The NFL has in recent years done everything they could to protect offensive players and neuter defenses because they believe Offense sells more Merchandise and Tickets then defense. Look at all the fines James Harrison and Ndamukong Suh have racked up.

reply to post by Reptius


Yep...those fines dwarfed a measly $1,500/1000 dollars.

I guess the trick is not to get caught.

WAKE UP!
It's all about the injury law suits the NFL is facing. This will be used to help show that they are concerned with player safety, but really it's all about MONEY!
If the NFL is really concerned then let's see them go after EVERYONE that was involved in bounty programs.

link

reply to post by corusso


I agree. If the NFL is so concerned with player safety then they wouldn't want to expand the season to 18 games, they would allow the teams to expand their rosters, they would give the NFL players association more health guarantees, not limit off season workouts, and they would not promote and expand Thursday night games.