Posted on 03/21/2012 10:04:06 AM PDT by DukeBillie
The NFL handed down its punishment of the Saints today, ending more than two weeks of speculation after the league first announced its wide-ranging investigation into a pay for performance program the franchise ran during a three-year period.
According to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com, coach Sean Payton will be suspended for a year, general manager Mickey Loomis eight game and fined $500,000 and the Saints will be docked $500,000 and second draft picks in 2012.
On March 2, the NFL set forth a wildfire of appall and amazement by releasing findings it says clearly points towards the Saints running a bounty program from 2009-11 under former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.
In all, between 22 and 27 players were involved in the program.
Initiated in 2009, the year the Saints made the Super Bowl, players were getting paid extra money under the table for big plays that included “cart-offs” and knockouts, according to the NFL.
Those plays earned $1,000 and $1,500, respectively, under the system run by Williams, who occasionally put money in the kitty, the NFL alleges.
At some point during that season, the pool reached nearly $50,000, the report says.
The investigation was brought on after the playoffs when the Saints put big hits on both Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner and Vikings signal-caller Brett Favre.
When asked by the NFL about whether he had any knowledge of the program, the league says Saints general manager Mickey Loomis claimed he did not, but promised to stop it.
A year later, when the NFL says it made Saints owner Tom Benson aware of pay for performance program, Loomis again was asked to stop the program. Again, the NFL says Loomis made no attempt to halt the practice.
Saints coach Sean Payton, meanwhile, is said to have not directly participated in it. He did, however, fail to stop it by instructing his assistant coaches and players that the program was against league rules.
Since the story came to light, both Loomis and Payton have released a joint statement accepting responsibility and declaring that it won’t happen again.
Additionally, Payton and Benson have both been to New York to visit with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, the coach to apologize, the owner to again offer continued cooperation.
Meanwhile, Williams, now with the St. Louis Rams, issued a statement nearly immediately after the initial allegations came out, accepting responsibility as well. He has since met with Goodell, too.
This NFL crap hardly qualifies as "sports," much less "news."
{snort}
Goodell is a light weight also. He knew about this stuff for at least three seasons, apparently. We game watchers have known about the late hits ( think Harrison, Steelers) for longer than that. Fines are OK for a first warning but suspensions and bans should be strkes two and three. I just don’t remember these cheap shots after the whistle during Roselle’s or Tagliabue’s times. I never laced anyone unless they cheapshotted me first——even then I kept it between the refs and between the whistles.
Agreed - To try to hurt players is criminal.
Boy oh boy!
RINO spawn Goodell F’d the Saints in the A and gave them Hepatitis!
I wonder if the Saints will think about just canning Payton.
No GM, no HC, no DC. No DC for the Rams either.
Firing makes sense, but who’s going to fire and hire? The owner?
This makes Spygate really look like a slap on the wrist.
I’m curious at what punishments the players get?
“People can blabber about how football is a rough game, but games should be won by superior play and not by trying to injure opposing key players>”
I agree with you 100 percent.Don’t get me wrong, I know football is a rough game and I love that about it. But the football I started watching about 40 years ago involved a lot more tackling than what I see today. Now all they seem to be able to do is go for the big hit. It is becoming more thuggish every year.
I hope they dole out some harsh penalties for the players involved as well.
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