1. Many NFL defenses cultivate a culture of aggressive violence and intimidation against offensive players. This is nothing new, either. I have still never seen a player any meaner or more dangerous than the films of Dick Butkus.

2. A coaching staff and organization that openly rewarded efforts by their defense to injure opponents, rather than out-perform them, represents a violation of every ethic in sports, and needed to be given the death penalty by the NFL, even if it was only for legal defense against the players’ own scummy legal attacks.

Not at all sad to see Payton kicked in the nuts. Now, what does the NFL do about the Detroit Lions defensive line, which was consistently the dirtiest unit I saw all year, including the Saints.

CatchAll on March 21, 2012 at 8:26 PM

Besides, during Lombardi Gras, Saints fans held a ceremony and buried all those sacks. The Ain’ts era is over.

WHO DAT?!

*anvil is a metaphor for the NFL and its brand durability.

You’re from a state with the last-place Twins, last-place Vi-Queens and the Wild and Timberwolves, both of whom are unlikely to qualify for the palyoffs again in the 21st century. The state’s only Division 1 school (Golden Goofers) cannot qualify for bowl games or the NCAA basketball playoffs.

To paraphrase the old Virginia slogan: Minnesota Is for Lovers Losers.

Peanuts !! This fine is peanuts when you consider what teams pay their top players. How a about fining them the annual salary of each of the players that received money from the “hitting bonus pool” over the last 3 seasons. $50 mill maybe? and $20x the draw any player won (ie if a player won $1000, he has a $20000 fine)from the pool. This still doesn’t begin to cover the medical costs from players injured for life from this sort of play.

$500K sounds like a lot, but it is probably less than the annual salary of the lowest first string player on the team.

KenInIL on March 21, 2012 at 3:07 PM

All you can talk about is the fine? Sean Payton’s banishment for an entire season just cost him 7 MILLION DOLLARS. Like one of the previous posters said, Williams is the perp here, not anybody else. Not Payton, not anybody else. Hell, Payton, the GM and the asst coach were all trying to keep an eye on Williams just to prevent this kind of crap in the first place. Goodell should change his name to BADell.

Oh yeah, one more thing. All you folks saying we Saints fans need to renew our supply of “paper bags”? I’ll thank you kindly to refer to them as paper sacks. We can always tell who the carpetbaggers are – they’re the ones who describe a buggy or a basket as a “shopping cart”.

GEAUX SAINTS!!

FREE SEAN PAYTON!

Amjean on March 21, 2012 at 3:27 PM

you wrong..they care.

they care about their legal liability. allowing a team to plan and administer system for rewarding dangerous hits would be the predicate to nearly unlimited liabilty to players injured as a result of such a scheme.

DrW on March 21, 2012 at 3:34 PM

Actually I am right. The league ignored it for years; that
proves they do not care about the players. I would make a huge
bet that this bounty game has been going on with other teams
as well. And the NFL knew about it. It was the little dirty secret. IF they cared, this would have been a huge story three
years ago when they supposedly warned the Saints.

NOW, they make a pretense of caring about the players health.
However, they only make the gesture because 1) they were caught
and 2) yes there may be financial culpability.

The superbowl is the AFC vs the NFC. It would be impossible to see a Jets vs Giants superbowl.

Politricks on March 21, 2012 at 6:00 PM

The Giants are in the NFC East and the Jets are in the AFC East so it possible.

Dan Snyder still hasn’t learned, since it looks like they’re still buying flashy, high-priced talent without shoring up their basic positions (i.e. the O-line) As I tell all my Redskin-fan friends: You can’t buy a championship…

I agree. However, the Redskins need to draft a QB they think can help them win. The “we have other needs” argument has been going on for TWENTY YEARS now, and the game has changed. You need a serviceable QB in the NFL, and Rex Grossman is not that guy. The OL is however, the 2nd biggest need we have. I wanted Carl Nicks over Garcon for a big money signing personally. We also need another LB

This year was the first year in a long, long time I actually cared about football. I rooted for my hometown Giants because people refused to accept Eli Manning as an elite quarterback, and he proved them wrong.

I also rooted for Tim Tebow because of all the Liberal hate he receives. I wanted a Manning vs Tebow Super Bowl. Now I have an excuse to root for the Jets again as well.

A Giants/Jets Superbowl would be terrific, just like the Yankees/Mets World Series, only now it’s even better because it would be Manning vs. Tebow.

Since Manning won twice I’m slightly favoring Tebow this time and have the Jets win. I’d be ok if wasn’t a Giants/Jets Superbowl, but I will be happy if Manning repeats.

hadsil on March 21, 2012 at 4:25 PM

—-

The superbowl is the AFC vs the NFC. It would be impossible to see a Jets vs Giants superbowl.

As far as the sacks that Denver allowed you have to remember that a large amount of those was because the line had to block for a guy who scrambled ALOT. I think having Manning back there will make their job a little easier, Hes not going to move around a lot and he gets the ball out his hands way quicker.

Tebow in New York? That’s a train wreck waiting to happen. The fans will call for him soon as Sanchez looses a couple of games and Sanchez psyche cant handle that, then you add in the loud mouth coach and I just dont see this ending well for the jets.

I have no problem with the fines or the suspension of Williams. The season long suspension of Payton and the loss of draft picks is outrageous.

If the NFL wants to get rid of bounties, good. Treating Payton and the Saints as if they invented them is wrong.

I couldn’t disagree more. The only thing that separates the NFL from organized gang violence is the thin veneer that says “no matter how hard I am hitting this other guy, my purpose is to tackle him within the bounds of the rules, not to hurt him.” The bounty program removed even that veneer.

This punishment was all about preventing crap like this from happening again. You can bet that coaches will be looking out for it verrrry carefully if a year’s salary is on the line.

The NFL, the Saints, and the coaches involved better hope that no major injuries are traced to bounty hits. Civil liability would be almost certain, and a prosecutor could make a great case for criminal liability if he wanted to.

Free Sean Payton

Del Dolemonte on March 21, 2012 at 4:54 PM

http://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/2012/03/post_214.html

Manning has to do more than win. He has to win a Super Bowl. Quickly! he and Elway rolled the dice big time with that press conference. Anything else is failure…by his own standards.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/Peyton-Manning-must-win-Super-Bowl-with-Denver-Broncos-032012

a capella on March 21, 2012 at 3:24 PM

^^THIS

Free Sean Payton

RMCS_USN on March 21, 2012 at 4:44 PM

Dan Snyder still hasn’t learned, since it looks like they’re still buying flashy, high-priced talent without shoring up their basic positions (i.e. the O-line) As I tell all my Redskin-fan friends: You can’t buy a championship…

…unless you’re the Yankees.

Why couldn’t Tebow be used as a running back and as a threat to throw when given th ball? He looked like a fearless runner.

Vince on March 21, 2012 at 3:28 PM

If you mean in Denver, that’d be because Manning wouldn’t share the ball, or the spotlight. He left The Colts because he refused to play nicenice with his replacement. There’s no way he’d share a team with Tebow.

There’s a lot of self-love in that big, wrinkly forehead of his.