sez the guy from Landfall MN

I almost forgot… These “bounties” did nothing to change the outcome of the game. What sealed the Queens’ fate was horrific ball management skills, a late-game pick, a complete lack of a “sudden death” defense and an overrated RB who washed his hands with butter before taking the field. Please try to keep things in proper perspective. With the exception of the final pick which the rest of the team forced him in a position to throw, Favre played lights-out that entire game despite being steamrolled by a fired-up Saints defense with a thirst for his blood. Maybe if the rest of the Purple Pansies had the stones Favre does, your team may have actually managed to come out with a win.

Here’s a newsflash: ALL teams pay their defense to make big, legal hits on opposing players each week! That is the core job of every defense in the league. You are only upset because the Saints actually awarded additional “prizes” in addition to the standard game checks.

Seriously… When did the NFL become a skirt-wearing league where LEGAL hits are seen as “cheating”?

Favre is never done. The toughest SOB in football ever. The man is a man above all men. I wish he would teach others to play like he did, this game would be much better for it.
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Amen Brett. Favre played the game as it should be played, with a happiness that may never be repeated. He was known to be the one player that all the other players wanted to see. This revelation will make his retirement a little kinder, and the sportswriters and fans think a little deeper about his last years. He took a pounding at the most vulnerable position in the game and holds the NFL endurance record. When we talk about the all-time top 5 quarterbacks, Brett Favre’s name will be one of them.

Not quite. The Cardinals, Vikings and Colts didn’t.

Otherwise Drew Brees would have been an oil slick on the Superdome carpet.

But the commissioner watched this game with most of you clowns and thought it was GREAT.
So great they made the match up the first game of the next season.

With even a casual reference to the rule book by impartial officials, this would have been a 14 point win for the Vikings.

This game represented everything that Goodell says he wants to change in the sport, but he loved it, booked round two as soon as he could.

To me this whole story has nothing to do with the Saints, their coaches or their players. It is all about how the officiating can collapse so bad in play off games. The saints did not put on stealth suites, they did it in plain sight. It was not called.

It was evident again this year. The giants had to work through incredibly bad officiating to get to the super bowl.

It seems that officials are at the least coached to try to call things a bit, but if a team is persistent, to “just let them play”. That calling penalties is perceived as them interfering and they will be criticized for doing that, but not calling penalties is less likely to get them in trouble.

That is one of the great lessons in the Patriots early dominance, keep interfering with recieves, the officials will stop calling it and you will counter a very good offence with very mediocre secondary players.

Anyone would agree. Any team could beat any other team every time if they are allowed to do any violence they want to the QB.

Bounties aren’t new to football; they’ve been rumored as long as I’ve been a fan. I don’t really trust that Goodell’s primary interest is player safety. His primary interest is the corporate image of the NFL. But if he’s serious about that, he’ll make a definitive statement with Williams. There’s no comparison between this and “Spygate.” That was minutia. This had a direct impact on the outcome of a championship game.

wonder if it can be found on youtube or somewhere.

I dont mind the side bets like in Golf, but in Footballm its different. Its not like in golf where you’re betting a golfer falls in a goofer hole, come-on.

I want to watch football for the ‘talent’ that players show… like receivers catching the long pass with one hand. “clean’ hit tackles.. not the Terry Bradshaw, pick him up and toss him on his head.

Then i agree… the SuperBowl Trophy is very tarnished right now in New Orleans

I’m thinking it might be a more NCAA style penalty to hit the Saints. We will see.

The Vikings play QB’s like Aaron Rodgers twice a year. But do you think that we hope our defense get’s “extra” hits on him, and hopes the guy get’s injured, and carted off the field? That would be stupid… Yes, i hope Jared can sack him, but injure, hurt, end his career? NO WAY! Sure, we all love the hard hits in football. But after the whistle, the high-low, dirty hits? NO! Why? Why would you want to injure someone and ruin their career? Why would you want to take someone out of the game who could possibly be one of the greatest of all time? Think about it! Some of you people who say football is becoming for sissies, you have no clue!

Maybe what they need to do now, is have the Vikings play the Taints, and then the Cards play the Taints…. 60 minute games…. No flags will be thrown on the Vikings or the Cards…. The play doesn’t end until the players say so… All out battle royal… See how Taints fans feel when Brees is black and blue and purple and every other color… And then everyone can start pitching in “straight cash homey” for broken bones, and decapitation on brees…. Sounds about the same thing the Taints did… I say the NFL should market these two games during the offseason… Does that make you Taints fans think about it???

There were no leaks to the media. The league handed out to each team a copy of their extensive report. One of the teams chose to show the report to Peter King who…reported on it.

The league did investigate allegations on the bounty system in New Orleans after the NFC Championship game against the Vikings. The investigation stalled when they ran into a lack of participation and denials (lies) from the Saints organization. The Saints were told to stop it if they were in fact doing it. Tom Benson told Loomis to stop it if they were doing it.

At some point recently the league received more information that confirmed the previous allegations.

- The Saints had bounties for injuring players. The bounty system has been admitted by Williams, Payton & Loomis.

- The Saints players, Williams, Vitt, Payton & Loomis all lied to the league about it. Ask Michael Vick how well that works when caught.

- The Saints continued the practice despite being previously investigated for it and told to stop.

- The reward bonuses, especially when paid by a coach, technically circumvents the salary cap.

- The IRS may want to go over some filings to see if these players were reporting the thousands of dollars they collected over the three year period.

- In light of players (current & retired) complaining about player safety, a system with intent to injure flies in the face of such out cry and doesn’t help its cause.

- While highly unlikely, certain players could have grounds to sue the Saints. Likewise, again highly unlikely, players & coaches could face prosecution for their actions.

Don’t go feeling sorry for the Saints and try to make them the victim.

And for some of you posting on this story – yeah, it’s no big deal.

The high-low hit was legal. Why os everyone being such a wuss about this? These guys are paid to hit people. The only thing that is an issue with this is the coaching staff knew about it. The hits themselves was just another day at the office.

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The hi-low hit was in fact illegal. The Brady rule was in place before the season started, so it should have beem flagged when McCrary hit Favre below the knee. The league went on to fine him for it, so I guess you’re wrong here.

Golic, along with Wiley & D Woodson, are getting confused with what they participated in (clean hard hits) and what appears was going on in New Orleans (intent to injure by any means).

That would be Remi Ayodele? The current VIKINGS player? Priceless. But still doesn’t prove much. It was probably just a QB sack payment.

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Great excuse, except for the fact they didn’t sack Favre on the play. They hit him on his first interception, which if called correctly, would have given the Vikings 1st & 10 at the New Orleans 20.

Substitute flipping for another F word this site will not allow.

Since were talking about circumstantial proof, what about the quote before that which has Payton saying ” They’re coming back to play action, lets’ hit this guy again!”.

Yeah, the coach didn’t know anything about this.
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And to think Favre considered Payton his friend …

The Saints bounty system cheated the individual players, while Spygate cheated the entire game itself. The Bountygate investigation will be relatively transparent, a direct contrast to the unethical practices that Goodell engaged in when he systematically destroyed the evidence regarding the violations in the Spygate scandal.

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The biggest differences: 1.) bounty gate had a clear direct effect on the game and 2.) Spygate wasn’t criminal. Translate the activity of video taping people conducting themselves in a public venue into a non-football context and there is nothing to complain about. Translate paying a person to injure another person out of the context of a football field and you have assault and battery. Anyone who believes it’s unfair that the Saints may get punished more harshly than the Patriots did really don’t have any perspective or insight.

Still don’t see what the big deal is. Its football. Cheat until you get caught.

AND…

jfdane says: Mar 6, 2012 4:36 PM

Can the media blow this any more out of proportion? Its absurd how big of a deal the media is making this.

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You, sir, are the problem with America and the reason why this kind of criminal conduct continues to get excused. Were you one of the 6 male jurors on the Cox jury who decided that it wasn’t rape because she never said no? You are the best argument anyone can make against democracy. If your vote really counts with equal weight to mine and the hundreds of people who give you a thumbs down, that explains all of the problems we see in our government today! Please do us all a favor and don’t vote.