“Recall Saints Harsh Punishment unless/until all NFL Teams are investigated” investigated

the sad truth here is don’t get caught, and if you do, don’t lie about it.

Warner threw a pick and then ran toward the play. He got de-cleated and knocked out. That has been going on forever in football.

The QB who throws a pick immediately becomes a target, fair game. If you think otherwise you are dreaming. Warner himself has admitted this. Grow up people!

Yes, Suh is a perfect example for someone that isn’t trying to hurt someone. I guess stomping on people doesn’t count, he’s just trying hard.

@ skinsfantom

Yea, way to question my intelligence. When you use …. anytime your intelligence should be questioned. Have a nice day? How about go screw yourself because you obviously don’t know anything about football players and their mentality. You’re everything that is wrong with football fans. You’re probably some obese, hog that has never played the game.

No there isn’t a difference. Trying to hurt someone and injure someone are the same thing.

Bingo. This punishment is more so based on Godell being mad that his almightly self was lied to. Also, the NFL is covering themselves for not bringing the hammer down when they first discovered this activity. If bounties were so awful, why didn’t they suspend the guilty parties immediately when they found out about it? But, no. They gave them a “hey fellas, do us a favor and cut out this bounty stuff before the public finds out about it. We are trying to push this “safety thing” and that wouldn’t look good if it went public.”

Your statements of
“But then I considered what he was saying. And it started to make some sense.”
AND
“But there’s a certain amount of appeal to the notion that a disconnect exists between the unsavory methods of getting players to play with reckless abandon and the reality that, in the end, guys were simply playing football, often with reckless abandon.”,
are both proof that you have been following the crowd during this situation, which is irresponsible “journalism”. Also, the disconnect you talk about, you and your fellow sports writers are the ones that invented that and have been exploiting it since day one!!!

AGAIN, you should be ashamed of yourself!!

Try writing something without having to use someone’s quote, or having to piggyback off of someone else’s story!!

1) These bounties in the saints case specifically incentivized injuries, not just good plays that may happen to cause injuries. There are things a player can do that are illegal or poor sportsmanship that go beyond just getting a sack or “laying a hit” on someone. therefore the comparison to legal contract incentives is not valid.

2) The NFL’s rules strictly prohibit *ANY* non-contract rewards or incentive, whether they are incentivizing legal or illegal plays. The reward system they had in place was already against the rules. The fact that it included specific injury to players when the league is facing lawsuits out the wazoo from injured players just made the situation one where the league had no choice but to bring the hammer hard.

James Harrison = trying to hurt (god I love watching him hit people)

Saints = trying to injure

There is a difference, and the Saints wrote it down, and took a picture, and now the league has it. They threatened the livelihood of their coworkers and were stupid about it. Pay the piper.

Contract incentives are completely different. Player, agent, team and league agree upfront to extra payment – through open and transparent payment methods – for hitting certain statistics recognized as valid by all four parties. That last part is particularly valid – it’s not just about agreement, it’s about game integrity. Do you really think this would all be OK if Hargrove had in his contract “$10K for injuring Brett Favre”? Of course not. No judge or jury in the country would buy that if Favre decided to sue. That’d be a formal contract to ruin another person’s health. It’s illegal and its shady, so the Saints did what most folks do when it comes to shady and illegal things – they did it under the table in a way that would be very hard to trace (cash only). Doing this as a formal system would put the league and everyone else in a TON of trouble. But it’s OK because it wasn’t done formally?

Please. Injury is incidental in professional sports. Assault is not. That’s the difference. It’s not just about the game.

Search in google, “No Bounty Necessary, Saints Fans Are After Goodell”

1. Bounties are NOT reported against salary cap, as are contract bonuses. The IRS would put you in jail for doing something similar with your taxes.

2. Bounty rewards can also include (but are not limited to) rewarding “non-football” plays on the NFL field. Hurting a QB 2 seconds after he hands off would and could in no way be a rewardable contract bonus.

3. In the Saint’s specific case, they continually lied about the usage of bounties. Specifically with behavior constituting the worst elements of points 1 and 2.

It’s no wonder the Saints got the hammer.

Honestly.. I have no problem with bounties, and neither does the NFL if:

1. They reward “good football” plays
2. They are reported against the salary cap
3. You are up-front about them throughout the process.

THESE are called contract incentives.

After all, he plays for one of the dirtiest teams in the
league so the line (for all of them) is naturally blurred…

Why was there no outrage then?

This hypocrisy and deluded self-righteousness is getting out of hand.

The Saints are not being punished because they tried to hurt players for money, they are getting punished because they got caught, lied, got caught again, lied again…