I agree the Saints should be punished for possibly lying to the league, but what about the investigations of the other teams, who have players who have flat out admitted to intentionally targeting players with injuries.

Anyone out there here of the brazen targeting of Kyle Williams of the 49′ers by players for the Giants in the NFC Championship Game just a couple of months ago? Intentionally targeting a player with a known concussion history for shots to the head, resulting in fumbles and a Super Bowl appearance for the Giants. And no investigation, let alone punishment? Fair is fair. Where is the justice from the NFL?

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So let me get this straight:

1. Your DC has admitted that there was a bounty program.

2. You admit your team lied about said bounty program

3. You admit the team should be punished but,

then you embellish by making unsustantiated statements like or along the lines of :

a. “Everybody else is doing it” – you have no proof that’s true

b. You implicate another team (NY Giants) for what exactly? – injuring a player (didn’t happen), threatening to injure a player (try again).

Then you conclude, “Where is the justice?” Wow! Talk about making us all a little dumber with those arguments. Your arguments so pathetic they don’t really deserve comment. I think we all know how this is going to end. There is going to be a leak about the whistleblower. Saints fans are going to villify that person for telling the truth. Then the media is going to expose every mistake that person has ever made sense the second grade (divorce, kids out of wedlock, shoplifting a pack of gum fom 7-11, etc.) and then only when their character is completely destroyed will Saints fans breathe a sigh of relief. PATHETIC

If the program were not effective, they would not have organized/implemented/stressed it.

Saints backers and bounty supporters seem to argue that their team should not be punished on the off chance that other teams were doing the same thing? Since when has that ever been an argument that works?

As for those geniuses on this forum who want to move next year’s Super Bowl, or remove the NFL franchise from New Orleans, or give some other team the Lombardi trophy for SB44 because of this, try the decaf.

Tell that to Brett Favre and Kurt Warner.
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Once more for those with special needs – the hit on Warner after the interception in 2009 was a COMPLETELY LEGAL hit – the type of hit defensive players have been making on QB’s after interceptions for 50+ years. Not in dispute, even from Warner himself. Thus we are left with one or two disputed calls on one player in one game. Where is the evidence of a “3 year bounty program”??????

I just saw a replay of the Saints / Panthers game from last year. There was a bounty on Cam Newton. Just while I was watching there were two roughing the passer calls and one of those was a blatant helmet to helmet hit. You can’t tell me these bounties were somehow meaningless…

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The call on Turk McBride for roughing Cam Newton was complete garbage, but we won’t talk about that. We’ll just chalk it up as more “evidence” against the Saints.

So it’s OK to try to knock a player out as long as you don’t have a pool?

No one is saying the Saints are angels. The Saints had 9 penalties for 82 yards in that game. Panthers had 7 for 65 yards. Close division games are always chippy.

The problem with that analogy is that Officer Friendly can only pull one car over. Officer Goodell can pull ALL 9000 other cars over. He’s choosing not to.

The other factor here is that I agree with quite a few folks I’ve spoken to that the saints won’t learn a thing other than to keep this activity under better wraps.

The real message to the world and rest of the league would have been to dismantle the team but that’s not realistic and wouldn’t be fair to the investors, the citizens of NO and fans.

This should be a progressive disciplinary process and if they really want to move forward, they take their lumps, and put it behind them.

Once again …..

This goes to once again prove that the punishment for ‘bountygate’ should have been a complete dismantling of the New Orleans franchise. A player/coach dispersal draft would have exiled the guilty to a defunct career ending. The SuperDome would have been torn down. All written mention of a team named the Saints would have been removed from NFL history. Any conversation of a Saint’s football team in public would be deemed illegal by Congress. It would be like the Saints never existed.

Instead of “Who Dat”, it would be “Where Dat.”
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hey cheech-i thought u quit chokin on that stuff

How do you punish a team for things that on-field referees saw no clear evidence of (intent to injure) and seem to have had few results (the bounty program)?

The answer he thought up:

Give out the harshest punishment in the history of the NFL.

What he should have asked himself, and what is a much bigger problem that’s gotten lost in all this:

If the Saints are running a bounty program, why, over the course of 3 years of investigation and about 50+ games (including playoff runs), were we not able to find/see it more clearly?

It seems like the NFL has an oversight problem. THIS should be the real story.

People get locked up for attempted murder all the time because the intent was bad enough. Charles Manson never actually killed a person but he’s been locked up for many a year now.

Throw in that they lied multiple times firect to Goodells face about doing it and they deserve everything they get

Nobody.

That’s why we need Sean Payton in football. You don’t get that sort of entertainment from any other coach.

Punish him, sure, but at least let him come back in time for the playoff run. After all, I’m sure the biggest punishment would be for him to come back just in time to lose to Seattle again in round one.

I think Vikings fans would rather see him lose than sit out.

If they had an illegal incentive program, it was an utter failure. Their D has been horrible under the entire Greg Williams reign.

A few thoughts…

1. there is no long list of injured players due to the bounty program.

2. Apparently the worst thing the “bounty” program managed to do was knock a 42 year old quarterback (Farve) out of a game for one or two plays.

3. The only reason they won the superbowl in 2009 was because they had a high turnover ratio (thanks to Darren Sharper and Tracy Porter). Once Sharper had knee surgery in the offseason and did not come back at 100%, the Greg Williams “blitz package” defense was shown to be an utter failure.

4. Some teams WITHOUT bounty programs were more penalized for roughing penalties than the Saints were WITH one.

The Saints deserve to be punished for lying to the league and having a bounty program. True. Their championship does not deserve an asterisk. They won by putting up 38+ points a game and getting turnovers, not by injuring people.

Players know when they appeal a fine for unsportsmanlike conduct, there isn’t a chance in hell that the fine will be either reduced or removed.

I think there should be a panel made up of judges representing the Owners, the League Office, the NFLPA and an unbiased 3rd party who will review all appeals brought forth by teams and players. They will look at each case without bias and refer to prior precedences in evaluating the outcome.

Exactly what rule or prior cases was the extent of the Saints’ punishment determined? It seemed to have been determined by one man hell-bent on making his point.

The Saints may be guilty as hell but to let the executer of the rules to also be the judge and jury is absurd. Hopefully the owners can do something to correct the unbalanced powers between the league, teams, and players.

The Saints were given a 4th strike, a 5th down, and now they are crying and playing the victim. Threatening Goodell and hoping to embarrass him when he comes to New Orleans next February. Keep it up Saints fans, it will only make the decision of which team to ship to Los Angeles much easier.

Don’t you mean – Appeals my focus on “disconnecting” an opponents head from its body on the field of action.