Saints used "Bounty program" on defense for last 3 years

[dwbrown7680]

Pretty interesting story that has surfaced since last night regarding the Saints. I'm a Falcons fan so anything that happens to NO is music to my ears and from the sounds of it the penalties are going to be pretty severe for this.

http://cnnsi.com/2012/writers/peter_king/03/02/saints.bounties/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t11_a2

 

[ythelongface]

Pretty suprised really. This is the kind of thing I expect from some teams, but not NO. All the same, if you guilty, you gots to pay.

 

[dwbrown7680]

Really? This is exactly the kind of thing I expect from NO. They are consistently painted (and rightfully so imo) as arrogant and egotistical. This ranges from Greg Williams to Sean Payton and the players. Payton has been accused more than once of intentionally running up the score when there was no reason to.

I for one hope they get hit hard like it seems they will. Lose their 2nd rounder this year, 1st and 2nd next year and the involved players/coaches get 4-6 game suspensions. Throw in some fines that are 6 figures too otherwise it'll look like they don't hit coaches as hard as they hit players for things like this.

 

[DEdwardsNJ]

Well fines are usually a joke for these guys and as far as I know Williams was the only coach directly involved with this so suspending Williams isn't punishing the Saints because he's with the Rams now. Who knows how many of the players involved are even still left to suspend, seems to me that draft picks are the only real way of making the Saints pay for this, and like college sports when they punish a program for stuff that happened years earlier, its the current players that pay, not the ones that committed the act. Not saying that it shouldn't be done, just wish there was a better way of reallying punishing those that were directly involved.

 

[Divebitch]

Agree w/you dedwards. Here is was I posted in the NFL forums a couple days ago:
"Funny thing is that Favre commented that it was really not that big a deal, nor surprise. They are always trying to take the QB down. TBH, most players are motivated enough to do whatever it takes to win. With the amount of money they make, the bounties are probably chump change, more of a bragging rights kinda game. But I would agree, a cheap or late hit, particularly on a defenseless player, with the purpose of inflicting serious injury, is despicable, but those hits are already being more stringently punished by bigger fines than the reported bounties."

 

[dwbrown7680]

With the push in recent years for player safety, Goodell will bring down the hammer on NO and it's pretty properly deserved based on all the reports.

 

[dwbrown7680]

Icing on the cake is Brees being "livid" about having the tag applied to him.

 

[Debi]

Wow - Sean Payton suspended for 1 year and they lose their 2 second round draft picks!

 

[dwbrown7680]

They lost their GM for 8 games, Head Coach for 1 year, and 2 other Asst. coaches for 8 games I believe. Tack on the draft pick loss and not to mention the individual sanctions on players that hasn't even come down yet.....Saints are in troubbbbbbbbbbleeeeeee.

 

[Cdub512]

It's funny how one of the suspended assistants, Joe Vitt, got the interim head coaching job. Now the Saints will have to get an interim coach for their interim coach for the first 6 games!