Saints paid players to hurt foes

[nofishfisherman]

I'm guessing you are a Packers fan. Just speculating here, but what happens if instead of a pick 6 Rodgers throws an 80 yard TD in overtime? Now instead of Kurt Warner receiving the concussion against the Saints, it's Aaron Rodgers that takes it and he became a Justin Morneau or Sidney Crosby? Packers fans would be screaming just as loud if not louder at this. Clearly the hit on Warner was intent to injure. It's one thing to hit a QB hard to disrupt pocket presence; it's completely different to hit a QB who's out of the play after a pick.

I think most defensive players are told to hit the QB if the interception is being returned. At that point the QB is fair game.

The difference is in the intent of the hit. Hitting a guy to rattle his cage a little and disrupt his confidence is one thing. The saints bounties were directly tied to a player either being hurt bad enough to leave the game or to be carted off the field. Thats the big difference here. There was an intent to injure.

[flipper]

Nope, Not a Packers fan. Look what the Packers did to McMahon to put him out of commission. This is not something new.

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

Nope, Not a Packers fan. Look what the Packers did to McMahon to put him out of commission. This is not something new.

Yup, your right... coaches pay players to hurt people ALL the time! Just as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west...

Name one other instance where there is proof of NFL coaches paying players for injuring people.

[PierBridge]

Not much we can do for guys on this one with your heads buried in the sand. It's football you try to knock the other players out of the game period end of discussion. The bounty means nothing and please show us one incident where the Saints bounty actually knocked somebody out of the game with a cheap-shot? Sorry it's just not there.

Our only beef we have as vikings fans is with the officials who should have flagged them a few more times but you can hardly blame the Saints for taking what the Refs gave them.

The Saints problem's or arrogance as it turns out to be are they were warned by the NFL on more than one occasion about there bounty program and they decided to keep doing it until the NFL had no choice.

I look for a $500,000 fine and the loss of 2 or 3 1st round picks plus suspensions.

Sound about right?

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

So basically the NFL is like the mafia? All teams/ coaches pay players to hurt people on top of their salaries? Happens all the time i guess! Saints shouldnt be punished at all!

NFL is nothing but a bunch of guys running around trying to injure eachother!! Makes sense to me...

Sure injuries happen in a rough game like football and yes players have tried to hurt eachother before.... But if you honestly cant see what is wrong with coaches paying players to hurt people then you need to buy a clue. How do you know someone wasnt injured and players were paid for it by the saints? U checked all the game tape from the alleged bounty pool games? They blew favres ankle up pretty good in that game with a high low hit. NFL even admitted that one should have been a penalty. Id be willing to bet someone got paid for that one.

Seriously, some of you guys make the NFL sound like a prison riot. Guys are runnin around with shanks stuck in their belt lines tryin to mame somebody every game! Dont really know how u come up with some of this jibberish.

Dont give me the "just vikings fans whining" talk, Id be willing to bet vikings fans arent the only ones that have a problem with mafioso bounty pools

[hawgchaser]

ESPN reports Goodell is meeting with Payton & Benson today. Adam Schefter reports that his sense is the main punishments to individuals will be to the clubhouse management - Loomis, Payton, Benson and the defensive captains. The hammer (according to Schefter) will not fall hard on the other 27 players implicated.

No one seems to have a sense of specific Team punishments as yet.

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

Word out that Payton has been suspended for a year! The Gm half the year and both fined 500,000. The saints also lose their next 2 second rd picks... Ha ha Whodat. Hope those bounties were worth it!

Looks like the NFL thought it was pretty serious....

[klecker]

Goodell lowered the boom.

[TR21HP]

Plus, Williams is out of a job indefinitely. Good for Goddell, no place in football for this garbage.

[PierBridge]

If thats true it's fantastic news!

2nd rounders though? didn't the Pats lose a 1st rd pick or two?

[LABS4ME]

Bye Bye Shauney! Couldn't happen to a better guy!

The 49ers were nuts to sign Smith... shoulda been on the horn to Brees... he'd jump ship! That team is destined to swirl into the sewer now!

Good Luck!

Ken

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

If thats true it's fantastic news!

2nd rounders though? didn't the Pats lose a 1st rd pick or two?

I dont think the saints even have a 1st rd pick this year, they traded it away... they wont have a pick until the 3rd rd of this years draft! The NFL must have thought that was severe enough. They didnt want to screw the franchise like David Stern did to the T wolves for Joe Smith, which was ALOT less of a crime then this. Stern is a joker though....

Plus the pats never had any suspensions for spy gate and the fines were half as much. This punishment is a heck of a lot more severe

[IamZombie]

Wouldn't it be ironic if the Vikings signed Brees?

[LABS4ME]

I think Ricky would say "we don't need a ProBowl caliber QB to compete in the league"...

Besides Brees isn't coming off a season ending injury and he's not washed up, so I doubt they'd have any interest.

Good Luck!

Ken

[mnviking28]

+1 Ken...well put!

[SkunkedAgain]

Goodell gets mucho credit for not tolerating this type of behavior. I suspect that the Saints organization didn't get more of a fine ($500,000) or lose higher picks because you also have to factor in that their head coach is suspended for the year, their GM for 8 games, and their top assistance coach for 6 games. Plus, you never know how much the NFL believes that ownership actually knew. Maybe they should have and they are being punished, but not as bad as could be.

However, I don't think that the team should be allowed to keep the Lombardi trophy. There should be an asterisk in the record book and they should strip the team of any titles like the NCAA would do to a team found cheating in order to win.

[nofishfisherman]

So now who coaches the Saints for this next year? Are they allowed to just fire Payton and bring in a new head coach? Or do they really go the season with fewer coaches on staff? Could they just hire someone like Bill Cowher (just as an example) and give him a title like Asst. Head coach and let him basically act as a head coach for the year. Wouldn't serve as much of a punishment to the team if that is the case, just a stiff penalty to a few individuals.

I'm not saying Cowher or another top tier coach would actually take a job like that but I wonder if there is anything preventing the Saints from replacing Payton in some capacity or another.

[SkunkedAgain]

Nope, they can hire someone new, promote their lame-duck OC or even Spagnuolo who just came on board as the DC. I'm sure that whatever contract Sean Peyton has with the team still stands but they could opt to buy him out at the end of the 1 year suspension.

[klecker]

They can fire him for cause. He broke his contract. They would not even be on the hook to pay him.

It’s not over yet. Some players will be punished as well. That will take longer as the players union will be involved on that.

[Getanet]

If they fire Payton could we hire him for the 2013 season? If that was the case this free agency period would sure look a lot better!

[toughguy]

I know a guy that would be more than happy to fill in for a year!

[mrklean]

He dropped the hammer for sure makes me laugh

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

Drew Brees tweeted that "someone has to explain this to me" and How great of a guy payton is...

Gimmie a f----n' break Drew! I wonder if thats what you would say if other teams put an injury bounty on your head!

Also, part of the evidence was that the saints had a bounty out on Aaron Rodgers last year in the opener... I wonder if he would have been permanantly injured in that game if the cheesehead fans would still be saying-" just another thing for vikings fans to whine about and use as an excuse, this is no big deal" like ive heard a bunch on already on this site. You cheeseheads are lucky the cheating saints didnt break his leg or give him another concussion...

[LMITOUT]

However, I don't think that the team should be allowed to keep the Lombardi trophy. There should be an asterisk in the record book and they should strip the team of any titles like the NCAA would do to a team found cheating in order to win.

[klecker]

Yiggin,

I read that as well and belive the same. He his trying to protect himself now.

NFL report on findings