How exactly do you figure that providing incentives to hit hard is cheating? It could be argued that attempting to LEGALLY hit an opposing player so hard that they are knocked out of the game is unethical, but it hardly violates and rules for the violent contact sport football is supposed to be. Besides, if offering incentives for hard defensive play is something coaches are now going to be suspended for, I guess no defensive free agents are going to get any signing bonuses for playing hard on the field anymore.

The bottom line is that unless players were making illegal hits on other players, they really didn’t do anything wrong… Unlike illegally videotaping the opposing team’s signals which does in fact give you an unfair competitive edge over your opponent.

Legally hitting opposing players as hard as possible is how great players like Reggie White, Ray Lewis and Lawrence Taylor made names for themselves. Of course, that was long before Gutless Goodell came along and decided to neuter defenses and make the players wear pigtails and skirts instead of helmets.

Yeah I feel real bad for him.

Get a life, hon. And don’t bother responding to this post as I am gone. I actually do have a life!

Frankly, I think you should thank your lucky stars that you weren’t suspended for life. If it were up to me, you would be.

OMG! What a bunch of cry baby’s. Agree on punishment for paying players but all teams have incentives to play hard. Its a physical game for men. Saints are first to get caught using cash. All teams have their ways to promote hard hitting action. If the hits were that bad there would have been a flag thrown. If you want powderpuff action get out of sports altogether.

duece 5 says:

morefan……YOU COULDN’T BE MORE WRONG. The refs actually blew the most important call that mamed Favre. The ref did NOT throw the flag, and the league came back two days later and said, yes, it should have been a flag-a personal foul for the high low……oops….we’re sorry!! that singular play was a game changer. It was ILLEGAL, it should have been 15 yards, Vikes ball given back AS AN INTERCEPTION WAS THROWN ON THAT PLAY on the saints 20……an absolute joke of a refereed game.

That’s just the point, there is already enough incentives for players…..you don’t need a bounty system to purposely mame players, which is what the saints had.

And no, not ALL teams did it or are doing it……,this WILL stop it. It’s absolutely why it had to be harsh!

The taints sbowl will forever be tarnished……like it or not.

This is crazy.

How many of the hits were ILLEGAL hits and how many of the hits were just hard played football?

And enough with the stupid Vikings Fans. Brees was hit late in that game also, he was hit with high low hits also. Your team still has not won a Super Bowl and Never Will

duece5 says:

The Vikes have something the taints NEVER had: CLASS.

We didn’t have an institutionalized system of bounties headed up by our DC, a head coach that looked the other way, an assistant hcoach (Vitt) that did the same, and a GM that lied to his own owner that he would “take care of it.!”

You guys did it for 3 years, LIED LIED AND LIED……now your “super bowl” is TAINTED forever…….doesn’t matter if you have it, the general public perception of the taints and their win is that they did it with shady coached and shamed themselves and the league.

We kicked the saints in EVERY category that day, you “won” the game with phantom calls, and now—JUSTICE: YOU CHEATED.

The NFL doesn’t have to vacate the supe from that year, it has already been vacated by most of us in the general public.

You guys are a DISGRACE!!!!

Perhaps, the Saints should reward the rest of the league by playing for the 2013 first pick in the draft? Reward the league for renewing Roger Goodell’s contract? The league deserves it.

That was a brilliant plan by Payton, I don’t know how it went wrong. Surely no one could have guessed that one of the other guys on the staff who lied repeatedly straight to Goodell’s face would be suspended too.

I think the Spygate thing actually affected the games way more than bountygate, but the Saints picked the worst time, and handled the situation in the worst possible way, so they are feeling the leagues full wrath, as opposed to the Pats who had the league go ahead and destroy the evidence for them.

-Bill Belichick

jayevanoff says: Mar 21, 2012 1:59 PM

I’m sure all the players who’s careers were cut short and their families are really distraught over his suspension. He’s lucky he isn’t going to jail. Saints should be ashamed.

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Please name all of the players whose careers were cut short by this. Oh, you have no clue? OK, name just ONE. Farve? Nope, he came back the next year. Warner? Nope, he came back to play in the same game, so clearly that wasn’t the cause of his retirement
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Think again. Warner retired when he did in part because his wife and kids were worried about his long term health if he continued to take hits like he took in that game. As for Favre, they ended his career too, it just took a little longer to figure that out. His ankle was still messed up when he came back. That left him slower and less able to avoid future hits. Favre ended up in what I call an injury spiral, in which each additional injury left him less able to avoid hits, which in turn brought about more injuries. the Saints may not have taken the final shot at Favre, but that NFC Championship game was clearly the beginning of that injury spiral.

I would not be surprised if the saints fight this bc this just shows how inconsistent goodell is. With spygate belick got a slap on the wrist. Then when mcdaniels did it he got a slap on a finger.
Plus players have been saying this has been going on for years. Godell is and idiot. He’s destroying the game.
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You know what would really destroy the game? How about a series of Congressional hearings that ended up with the government setting up an oversight group in the name of safety? How about an endless stream of lawsuits because the NFL did nothing to try to make things safer after quite a few medical studies have detailed the long term effects that some of these hits have on players? I congratulate Goodell on doing his job and doing it well. He’s protecting the players, and in so doing protecting the league. I’d much rather have the NFL police itself than end up with government oversight over football. Oh, and if you think it can’t happen, you’re kidding yourself. The sheer popularity of the NFL could encourage some attention seeking members of Congress to put themselves in the middle of things, if for nothing else to improve their own name recognition.

I am really angry right now this kind of stuff really ps me off Goodell needs to step down or else there may be a fan revolt. Not a saints fan
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No fan revolt here. I have no bias against the Saints, but what happened is entirely their fault. They didn’t simply post bounties on other players, they lied to the league about it and engaged in an organized cover up that lasted years. Oh, and they were dumb enough to continue posting bounties after the league let them know they were being investigated. It’s the same kind of institutional arrogance that led to the NCAA giving SMU the death penalty.

As for all of this whining about Goodell, some of you need to grow up. Whether you like this decision or not, Goodell is doing what he’s supposed to be doing…his job. His job isn’t to go from town to town and say “football is fun”. His job is to watch out for the league, and please don’t compare this to spygate. Setting aside the fact that spygate didn’t cause injuries or end players’ careers, spygate didn’t put the league at risk like the Saints just did. People can complain all they want that things aren’t as “tough” as they used to be, but the point is that now we’re well aware of the impact some of those hits have on the long term physical and mental health of the players. If the NFL does nothing about this, they open themselves up for an endless stream of lawsuits. If a player gets seriously injured (I’m talking paralysis or some other permanently disabling injury) or God forbid dies and the NFL does nothing to try to prevent it, they’ll have Congress all up in their business. So, this is about protecting both the players and the league itself.

Seems like ESPN should bring back “Playmakers” and just write the stories based on what actually goes on with the Saints. Rating bonanza.