If you haven’t yet read the entire NFL report announcing the punishment to be imposed on Saints coach Sean Payton, former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, Saints G.M. Mickey Loomis, Saints assistant head coach/linebackers coach Joe Vitt, and the Saints organization generally, you need to. (Drew Brees definitely needs to.)
We’ll be sharing chunks of it here, highlighting specific aspects of the report.
For starters, Panthers quarterback Cam Newton can be added to the list of players who were specific targeted by the Saints defense.
Newton joined Brett Favre, Kurt Warner, and Aaron Rodgers as the quartet of quarterbacks who had price on their heads. Or, more accurately, on having their asses dragged off the field.
The initial March 2 announcement from the league identified Favre and Warner as subjects of a bounty; the internal, confidential (but inevitably leaked) NFL Security memo from that same day said that a bounty had been placed on Rodgers for the 2011 regular-season opener, with Mike Ornstein offering to contribute $5,000 to the pot in an email to Payton. (Wednesday’s announcement from the league doesn’t name Ornstein, but it quotes the email: “PS Greg Williams put me down for $5000 on Rogers [sic].”)
For that and more, read the full report. Or wait for more snippets to be posted here. Either way, remember that these aren’t allegations. They are facts determined to be true by the league, based in large part on the reality that the people involved in the bounty program have confessed.