P.S. I remember that NFC championship game vividly and the funny thing is I even remember the announcers questioning if if the Saints were deliberately trying to injure Favre. … Well, they did and they succeeded.

Goodell smeared the Patriots as cheaters when in fact there was no cheating; now he’s going to smear the Saints as dirty when in fact they hit well within what’s acceptable in football. The Saints played fair & square and they won the Superbowl fair & square. The dirty pool came not from the Saints but from those who see physical football as dirty football (cue Bill Polian because the Titans and Panthers could take hits from the Patriots but his Colts squads couldn’t).

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Truth. Nicely done. I’m sorry for the Saints fans that will have to field BS comments about this, now. That was a great run / win by the Saints, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

I still say, where are the Saints illegal hits? Were they flagged or fined more than other teams. They were probably not flagged or fined as often as James Harrison all by himself.

The hit on Warner after the interception in 2009 was hard and totally legal, and every defensive player I have ever heard speak about their careers have said that on an interception return, defenders get a free hit on the QB. That hit was shoulder to shoulder, not helmet to helmet or on his legs or from the back. I give you that some of the hits on Favre in the NFC Championship games were close calls (hence some were penalized and some were not), but as a Redskins fan, I have never seen the Saints ever do anything like what Phillip Daniels and Andre Carter did to Peyton Manning when Williams coached there, or like what Suh did to Andy Dalton last season – close to tearing their heads off.

It is fine to discipline these coaches and GM’s if there were rules against these bounties, or if these individuals lied to NFL investigators. But get off it with whining about the Saints 2009 title, or with the genius who proposed removing the Super Bowl from New Orleans next February. Give me a break.

Period.

You guys are a joke. Spygate was BS. Patriots still won 18 games after that. Such losers you guys are. And the Saints are still fine in my book. You can never take away the Saints SB. And you can’t even touch Patriots 3 SBs. Nothing you can do about it.

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When the Giants figured out the Patriots offensive line calls, it made a huge difference in Super Bowl XLII.

The Steelers won 16 games in 2004, after playing a Patriots team they beat handily.

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cmack15 says: Mar 3, 2012 12:37 PM

QUOTEBOOK
“Every now and then I’d get a sheet, one hour before the game, with a list of audibles for our opponent. I don’t know how, but they just showed up.”

– Former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson to USA TODAY in November 2005
patriotsssss says: Mar 2, 2012 6:51 PM

I am sure that this quote had nothing to do with the Pasties success over the last decade right?

Perhaps there was a reason the Patriots eeked out Super Bowl wins prior to and failed post. The team of the decade wouldn’t have been without the edge that Eric Mangini let the world know about after Belichick illustrated the same professionalism to him that he showed the Jets by resigning with a note on a napkin.

The truth is the truth, whether you like it or not.

Well, it’s not like the NFL nailed the Steelers of the 1970s for their steroid use, so what are they going to do here? Their not taking away the Saints Super Bowl Championship.

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Typical ignorance.

#1 – Steroids were first introduced into pro football in 1963, where the chargers went from a 3 win team to an 11 win team and won the AFL Championship 51-10. Alvin Roy was the strength coach that introduced D-Bol.

He then went to Kansas City, soon after they won a Super Bowl.

Than Dallas, they won a Super Bowl.

Then Oakland, they won a Super Bowl….seeing a pattern here?

Fact is, they were legal substances, no different than using special cleats. But the sheer stupidity of people who thing the Steelers were the only team utilizing a legal substance to increase strength just illustrates the level of how easy it is to get people to believe a story. Taking the time to actually READ and EDUCATE yourself on facts is too hard of work, its easier to rationalize success you couldn’t attain by discrediting someone else.

– Former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson to USA TODAY in November 2005
patriotsssss says: Mar 2, 2012 6:51 PM

I am sure that this quote had nothing to do with the Pasties success over the last decade right?

======================

It has never happened in NFL history, and god willing , it never will.

It always comes down to one team stopping another team – everything else is PC garbage. The object is to stop the other team from scoring, and in today’s win-at-all-costs society, America wouldnt have it any other way, PERIOD.

It was a great story, and it will continue to be a great story, no matter what garbage is printed, by scrub underlings that leaked the story.

Again, this coming out during the Brees contract stinks of distraction, period. …. PATHETIC.

What do you do in response to a perfectly legal big time hit where a player receives a bounty? That would (steam) me off even more if a player on my favorite team actually let up when he had a chance to give an opponent a “remember me” hit. It’s part of the game.

Has the league totally gone flaccid? Um, since I can remember, hitting…big time hitting has been part of the NFL. A bounty shouldn’t make a guy hit any harder; it should convince them to take advantage of the chances they have to level someone.

As the player said in an NFL Films video, “see the snot bubbles coming out of the quarterback’s nose”.
Today’s NFL wants to turn the league into Madden on Xbox 360

Goodell smeared the Patriots as cheaters when in fact there was no cheating; now he’s going to smear the Saints as dirty when in fact they hit well within what’s acceptable in football. The Saints played fair & square and they won the Superbowl fair & square. The dirty pool came not from the Saints but from those who see physical football as dirty football (cue Bill Polian because the Titans and Panthers could take hits from the Patriots but his Colts squads couldn’t).

The real questions are who snitched, and isn’t it interesting this comes out on the eve of the Brees contract debacle?

This way, it will send a message to the rest of the league, for this is a form of gambling and it should not be tolerated.

The NFL world’s watching this. Most notably, James Harrison, who gets fined just sneezing on a QB.

And if Goodell does things to the coaches comparable to the players, then watch the players start lashing out – and watch the headhunters come back in full force.

Please explain then why they were running such a system for such a long time if they weren’t getting takers and it wasn’t effective?
========================

All I am saying is that the players may have taken the bounties as a nice little bonus that they got paid when the made a great play that they would have made anyway, and the coaches saw it as a way to keep the players happy.

I simply refuse to believe that they purposely made illegal and dirty late hits that they would not have made otherwise SIMPLY because the would collect a bounty.

Thus, while I think it is completely wrong and they should be punished, the only thing I am disagreeing with is the premise of this article that these bounties are the reason they won the Super Bowl.

Please explain then why they were running such a system for such a long time if they weren’t getting takers and it wasn’t effective?

Try reading between the lines; look for the subtext. We’re not talking hard hits, laying the wood, destroying the ball carrier or even laying a guy out. Within the boundaries of the game’s rules, most, if not all of us love these hard hits.

However, we’re talking about an incentive to hurt someone which leads to, and actually incourages, cheap shots with the intent to injur.

The difference is enormous!

No, they never made any illegal hits.

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You must not have watched the Saints – Vikings game and the mutitude of cheap shots.

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realitypolice says:Mar 2, 2012 4:18 PM

Why?

Are you honestly saying that millionaire athletes were more inclined to make late hits, would could have resulted in 15, 25, or 50 thousand dollar fines, in order to win $1,500 bounties?

Please think before you speak.

———————————-

If you watched that NFC Championship game clearly they were. No one claims football players are the sharpest tacks in the box. Wouldn’t be the first and won’t be the last time you see them do something unexplicable, especially in the frenzy state they play high profile games.

Saints fans need to eat some Crow. Their Team cheated in ’09 and now that you’ve been busted, it’s time you take your punishment – like a man instead of a bunch of rationalizing whiners who still think that William’s and Payton’s sh** don’t stink.

And wouldnt there have been several “bounties” on Tom Brady?

Distraction, and idiocy deflecting from the Saints being unable to sign Brees…and a slow news cycle. two other variations of this story soon followed.