Hello, Saints: NFL violence not same as premeditated assault
Gregg Williams admits, "It was a terrible mistake, and we knew it was wrong when we were doing it." Too late. (AP photo)
During his NFL career, Doug Plank suffered multiple concussions — they didn’t really count them back then — five knee surgeries and a spinal concussion that left his left leg partially numb in retirement. He might have played longer than eight seasons, but, as he said, “I made 100 tackles per season. That’s like 800 train wrecks.”
This is what Doug Plank, one of the tougher men ever to play football, the guy for whom the Chicago Bears’ famous “46 defense” was named, thinks of the New Orleans Saints reportedly putting bounties on players.
“I can’t believe a coach, a team or an organization would stand behind that policy,” he said. “For a coach to even address something like that with players, like, ‘This is a person we can remove from the game,’ that puts you on pretty thin ice. If this is true, when you make a decision [on discipline], you have to understand that actions like that affect all the people in this business. It needs to be something that says, ‘This will not be accepted.’”
When the NFL disclosed Friday, in alarming detail and transparency, that the New Orleans Saints maintained a “bounty” program for three seasons, involving “22 to 27 defensive players” and “at least one assistant coach,” I was initially underwhelmed. We celebrate violence in football, at all levels. The bigger hit, the better.
But there’s a difference between rewarding an athlete for an unscripted play and a premeditated assault. Yes, football is a brutal and physical game. Players generally fall into one of three categories: 1) A little crazy; 2) A lot crazy; 3) Waived. But that doesn’t excuse New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams for basically pinning a poster to a locker-room wall, reading, “WANTED: Kurt Warner. Maimed. Reward: $10,000.”
Doug Plank, former Georgia Force coach, knows about legalized NFL violence. (AJC photo)
Warner and Brett Favre were two of the players identified in the report as targets. Allegations were initially investigated in 2010 but were denied and couldn’t be proved. New information led to the investigation being reopened in 2011.
The NFL’s statement reads like a federal indictment, with bullet points on “payments for cart-offs,” funding practices and the damning actions of general manager Mickey Loomis.
If there is a line between the NFL being controlled or barbaric, the Saints crossed it. Williams and coach Sean Payton should be suspended for a season. Loomis, who may have lied to both his owner and the NFL, should be out of a job. The team should, and will, lose draft picks. The punishment needs to hurt.
Former Georgia defensive end and Cincinnati Bengals linebacker David Pollack goes even further.
“If it’s true that [Williams] paid for Warner and Favre’s injuries for late hits, we need to talk about permanent bans,” he said.
Those trivializing this as some boys-will-be-boys offense are missing the point. This goes beyond cheating, like “Spygate.” We’re talking about people’s careers and lives.
It’s significant that even Williams admitted, “It was a terrible mistake, and we knew it was wrong while we were doing it.”
Suddenly, he doesn’t seem so tough.
Plank, former Georgia Force coach and now the Arena league coach in Philadelphia, played for defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan in Chicago. Ryan was alleged to have put bounties on Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman and kicker Luis Zendejas when he coached the Eagles. But Plank said he wasn’t aware of any coach-run bounty system in Chicago, and when he played (1975-82) players didn’t make enough to fund such a system.
“When I played, you got rewarded for the big hit or big play of the game,” he said. “At Ohio State, it was called the ‘Jack Tatum Hit of the Game.’ In Chicago if you made a big play I think they gave you a dinner for two. But that was after the fact. What we’re talking about in New Orleans is more in advance. Buddy didn’t stand in front of a room while we were watching film and say, ‘This guy has to go down.’”
Williams did as much. He admits it.
Commissioner Roger Goodell will swing a sledgehammer. Bounty rules, he said, ensure “player safety and competitive integrity.”
Everything else is window dressing.
By Jeff Schultz
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175 comments Add your comment
saintsation777
March 6th, 2012
4:07 pm
So what about Buffalo, Washington, Jacksonville, and Tennessee who had bounties under this fool greg Williams!! Are you calling them out too or just my Saints cause you all can’t beat them. I don’t remember seeing any Falcon player being carted off the field the last 3 years from this swiss cheese defense we had. As a matter of fact, i can’t rememeber seeing anyone being carted off from our pathetic defense. So get over it. I supported you all in the dog scandal with Vick so get over it!!
BRAD
March 6th, 2012
4:16 pm
Go to Peter King’s story on http://www.cnnsi.com and look at the pic of Farve getting “high-lowed” and tell me they weren’t trying to take out his knee. King make an excellent case as to how that hit changed the game and cost the Vikings a spot in the Super Bowl.
BiggDawgK
March 6th, 2012
4:21 pm
reckingball
You are correct sir. Goodell and the nfl are almost as guilty as the taint’s. They loved the story of the katrina victims “winning” a supper bowl and they mad sure it happened. Then they act surprised when the crackhead they gave they key to robs them. The nfl even warned the taint’s they were investigating and the taint’s still continued with the bounties!! How stupid does an organization have to be to keep cheating when they have been warned to stop?
saintsation777
March 6th, 2012
4:22 pm
Nobody cares what Peter King thinks. Who is he gawd or nostradameus t opredict such things. Farve didn’t miss not one play in that game. Get over it!! Why you so worried about the Vikings for. Worry about Atlanta for when you all ever gonna win a playoff game again and stop having your players on housewives shows!!!
5150 UOAD
March 6th, 2012
4:22 pm
so a few players have their careers ended it isn’t like there is a younger cheaper kid coming out of college or on the practice squad that wants a shot to play.
BiggDawgK
March 6th, 2012
4:23 pm
“How stupid does an organization have to be to keep cheating when they have been warned to stop?” I guess I should ask the brain trust over at ga text that question.
5150 UOAD
March 6th, 2012
4:25 pm
BiggDwagK………..I don’t want to hear a single DWAG fan say a word until you say some thing about this……….you dislike Bounty plays? You don’t like players to attempt to purposefully hurt another player? Please tell me what should have been done to CORDY GLENN and BEN JONES for tackling FAIRLY and gut punching him in the UGa Auburn game then? WHAT should God Fearing Richt should have done? Suspend them for a game maybe?
BiggDawgK
March 6th, 2012
4:25 pm
5150 Just when I think you can’t top your previous classless malicious comment you manage to do so. You have mastered the “art” of douchbagery.
5150 UOAD
March 6th, 2012
4:27 pm
BiggDwagK is a hypocrite. He loves players to be injured and taken off the field as long as it is his players doing the hurting.
BiggDawgK
March 6th, 2012
4:29 pm
Those were clean hits and you know it. There was no bounty offered for that lowlife Fairly. Despite the numerous late hits and cheap shots he administered that day. Though I guess you are used to seeing those at the trade school. What will coach chop block do now that the rules have been changed on low blocks?
5150 UOAD
March 6th, 2012
4:29 pm
We wouldn’t have a Tom Brady if Drew Bledsoe wasn’t knocked out of a game.
saintsation777
March 6th, 2012
4:30 pm
Reckingball
Just the Saints should be punished right!! Not the Jaguars, Bills, Titans, and Redskins who practiced this under Saints. Just Saints cause ATL can’t beat them. Good logic
5150 UOAD
March 6th, 2012
4:30 pm
They jumped on Fairley and were throwing Punch to his stomach that is not a clean play you moron.
Joe Tess Fish House
March 6th, 2012
4:32 pm
All I here is whinging from U Flacons fans as an excuse as 2 why the Falcons loss 2 the Saints. Stop whining cuz the real reason they loss was because of Tommy Dummytroff and his waisted draft pix.
5150 UOAD
March 6th, 2012
4:33 pm
Tech doesn’t use a chop block anymore that any other team. learn the difference between Chop Block & Cut Block
Larry
March 6th, 2012
4:34 pm
Jeff,
This 100$ spot on and some of your best work…thanks!
I think the term, premeditation, is a perfect choice one that so many–including other NFL veterans–haven’t been able to grasp. A violent and physical game is it and certainly a career ending or life threatening injury is a possibility one who plays has to accept. However, a willful, premeditated, and incentivised plan targeted at a particular player to get “carried off the field on a stretcher” is more than despicable…it’s downright criminal!
Good work!
Larry
BiggDawgK
March 6th, 2012
4:36 pm
5150 I am not surprised you are a taint’s fan though. It does fit your lowlife cesspool personality. Not to mention all you seem to do is hang out on the ajc blogs all day and night. Who pays for your libations? Is it me and the other tax payers or is it your mom?
DAWG FAN FROM DOUGLISVILLE
March 6th, 2012
4:38 pm
U R NUTZ IF YOU THING DAWG PLAYERS R DIRTY.
Steve Jobs
March 6th, 2012
4:42 pm
Epic
BiggDawgK
March 6th, 2012
4:42 pm
Oh well no more “cut” blocks this year. That was the only way cpj could slow down a defense so ga text will be even more pathetic this year and not many people thought that was even possible.
DAWG FAN FROM DOUGLISVILLE
March 6th, 2012
4:44 pm
DONT LISSEN 2 HIM HE IS JUST ANOTHER DUMM TECH FAN WHO IS JELOUS OF UGAS SUCCESS!
BiggDawgK
March 6th, 2012
4:46 pm
Drew Brees will have a target on his back this year and without the katrina sympathy card to play it will get real ugly for him quickly. Wow how the heck does an organization manage to screw up being handed a free super bowl championship so quickly? All that crack and liquor in that cesspool called new whorleans takes it’s toll on everyone that wallows in the filth.
Vulture
March 6th, 2012
4:49 pm
DAWG FAN FROM DOUGLISVILLE
March 6th, 2012
4:44 pm
DONT LISSEN 2 HIM HE IS JUST ANOTHER DUMM TECH FAN WHO IS JELOUS OF UGAS SUCCESS!
Who’s dumb?
TECH FAN FROM TUKKER
March 6th, 2012
4:49 pm
SHUT UP YURE THE ONE WHOS JELOUS OF US WE GOIN TO WHUP YOUDWAGS BUTT GOOD
5150 UOAD
March 6th, 2012
4:54 pm
biggdWagk you really can’t read can you? The NCAA has not stopped the use of Cut blocks. I hate the Saints. I think you wusses are crying about a violent game that without the violence would never have become popular. if you want it to STOP then ELIMINATE most of the safety equipment that allows for the players to be more reckless.
5150 UOAD
March 6th, 2012
4:56 pm
All that crack and liquor in that cesspool called new whorleans takes it’s toll on everyone that wallows in the filth.
LMFAO at that statement. It sounds just like the town Don Leebern has created in Athens.
Dean
March 6th, 2012
4:59 pm
I should have known that in a story that has almost nothing to do with Georgia, that a Tech fan would take the opportunity to link this deal to UGA play.
Dean
March 6th, 2012
5:01 pm
5150. atleast you can walk the campus in Athens without fear of getting held up. too bad the Techies can’t even figure out a way to make their campus safe. Such good engineering students that they can’t even find a way to make their neighborhood safe. What losers!
5150 UOAD
March 6th, 2012
5:11 pm
haha DEAN that is funny. See at TECH in a big city students have to be mindful of the city criminals. In Athens the criminals are the students. The women at UGa have to fear assault from football players and date ra.e from the other male students. Yes, the students don’t have to fear people from off campus messing with them but the other STUDENT CRIMINALS live with them. Football players and recruits stealing form each other. Soccer player girls stuffing hash browns down her pants. HAHAH UGa has NO CRIME for sure.
Eddie "Knuckles" Cicotte
March 6th, 2012
5:13 pm
Jeff, hope you return to spring training reports soon! What’s the word on the supposed arrival of the cursed DH rule to the NL?
Say it ain’t so Joe!
Archie
March 6th, 2012
5:13 pm
I keep hearing all these arguments that what the Saints are doing isn’t a competitive advantage, but in reality it is. There is a line that can easily be crossed between physical football and completely disregarding X’s and O’s for the sole purpose of injuring an opponent. Anybody can do the latter, there’s no skill or craft involved in that. Playing that way means you’re leaving the confines of the game whenever it’s convenient for you to do so, and that is in fact a competitive advantage.
TheAntiMe
March 6th, 2012
5:33 pm
Is anyone actually surprised that the Saints would resort to such invidious conduct? Would anyone actually expect anything more of them? After all, have you seen the freaky looking people each game in the Superdome who call themselves Saints fans?
Birdman of Falcatraz
March 6th, 2012
5:33 pm
As an avid hater of everything Saints, but also a realist about the history of my own organization (my own as in I am a fan) I cannot jump completely on this burn the Saints bandwagon. Yes it will not hurt me to see them in the ditch that we ourselves recently crawled out from, but when you pay a bunch of young men to be as violent as this sport requires, and many of them coming from violent or atleast broken upbringings you are going to have some sort of disaster to deal with on a pretty regular basis. What is troubling here is that it was the coach running the whole scam, the one person who is supposed to ensure his players stay clean so they can play every Sunday. Williams is complete A-WHole. And yes the GM probably needs to be severly punished as well, but I wont laugh in a Saints fan face, as our Vick debacle is not so far removed either.
"Chef" Tim Dix
March 6th, 2012
5:47 pm
Right after the coin toss the ref should remind the captains to protect yourself at all times.
Ban the coaches, fine the owners, and give the players a pass because after all, the NFL operates on a plantation mentality.
Really?
March 6th, 2012
6:00 pm
@5150 UOAD — you are correct (as is Butkus)… without protective gear the tackling and injuries will DECREASE… that’s my experience playing rugby and playing sometimes against former football players who forgot they didn’t have the helmets and pads. The tackler can easily get it worse than the tacklee. That said, taking away equipment will never happen and shouldn’t, but it would decrease injuries (after some increase for the players forgetting they are not protected.
5150 UOAD
March 6th, 2012
6:03 pm
Get rid of Face masks first and that would quickly stop the lowering of the head on tackles. Head up butt low shoulders straight meet him face to face.
Nativebird
March 6th, 2012
6:10 pm
Their super bowl win should be vacated. Their should be a ‘parade’ down bourdon street as the trophy goes out of town. New Orleans: dirty city, dirty people. the place smells. literally.
coloradofalconsfan
March 6th, 2012
6:14 pm
What will get them the biggest hammer is that the NFL warned them and they still didn’t stop it. That’s complete arrogance and a total disregard for the authority of the NFL. There is no way they get off easy for this. Plus there is a paper trail. Saints apologists like ’saintsation777′ want to try to point the finger at other teams that allegedly have done this as well. But unless there is proof, I don’t see how they can retroactively punish Bills, Skins, etc. Williams will get banned for life. Payton and the GM should get a year ban. Fines and game bans for players involved. Loss of picks for the team.
Done
March 6th, 2012
6:29 pm
Williams looks like a woman in that picture
FalconFreak
March 6th, 2012
6:50 pm
Get real Jeff…suspend Payton for one season? You’ve got to be kidding me. Suppose your son was on the hit list and was killed, crippled or injured so badly his NFL career was ended. Do you really think suspending the coach who condoned this type of behavior is adequate? I don’t and we don’t need that kind of thinking in the NFL or anywhere unless you’re training Navy Seals for a mission. Payton was willing for his players to end a career, cripple a player, or potentially kill someone. It should be a criminal offense. At minimum, his career should be ended. Get Real!
reckingball
March 6th, 2012
6:51 pm
saintsation777 @4:30………..Read coloradofalconsfan@6:14pm.
No proof, no case, against the teams you mentioned.
Deal with it, you’re team is dirty, and they finally got caught.
Now they have to pay.
TD
March 6th, 2012
6:52 pm
Again, the over-the-top hypocrisy of professional sports comes front & center. Here is a sport where violence is glorified from every standpoint, and has been for decades, but now the powers that be in the NFL are going to clean up their shop. What’s really going on here is the NFL is playing the cover your ass game, because the lawsuits against the league are starting to multiply & frankly I have a feeling the NFL may have a hard time defending itself in court. The ugly truth is for years the league has known of the long term ill effects of playing the game, often including debilitating pain & illness, and premature deaths. Recent studies on the brains of football players have yielded data that in effect indicts the sport for it’s violent conduct.
Nonetheless, the culture of hitting hard is so deeply ingrained that calling this out now is like putting a band-aid on cancer. Let’s look at this from the view Drew Brees does.
Here’s a quarterback on one of the teams in question who is in the position most often being hit, but who sits in a position of governance in the league where you would think he would have a moral imperative to highlight, and help stop, the
behavior. He hasn’t, and neither has any other qb. This has come out because of a snitch who, rightly, thought it wrong to provide incentives beyond the aforementioned
culture where defenders hit guys to go through them – which starts in high school, btw.
So while I believe it’s beneficial to the human beings involved for their health moving forward, I do not necessarily agree with the way the league is approaching it. To make an analogy, this is like baseball where all the sudden after years of steroid use the league cracks down and indicts everyone it can but itself. The NFL should have a huge red face right now but first it will deflect as much attention away from itself as it can. All I can say is when those courts hear the cases against it for its despicable treatment of its former players, I hope the end result is millions of dollars from the league’s coffers into the hands of those the league hit, with its negligence, harder than what any player or players were ever able to muster.
Oh, and all you football fans out there. The next time you want to argue that an a-hole like James Harrison is right about hitting someone, remember that guy out there might not live to 55 so you can be entertained. It’s time to fully understand that football really is throwing humans into the lion pit. It doesn’t have to be this way,
reckingball
March 6th, 2012
6:53 pm
Williams looks like a lower than whale do-do, dirty rotten, cheating SOB, in everyone of his pictures.
HiramSaint
March 6th, 2012
6:54 pm
I admit. We are idiots…..
SawThat1nce
March 6th, 2012
6:55 pm
saints == cheaters
5150 UOAD
March 6th, 2012
7:06 pm
In PRO sports it is 3 strikes then your out. All the Drug abusers in the MLB, NBA, and NFL get to come back all the time. Leave the coach alone it is not many pro athletes are real high moral kind of people in the first place.
Supersize that order, mutt
March 6th, 2012
7:19 pm
What is it with teams with gold helmets always being cheaters? Everyone involved should be fired, especially Paul Johnson.
cajungirl
March 6th, 2012
7:26 pm
The Saints are like any other football team. They are getting paid to play a violent sport. This past year, only one Saint’s player was fined for a malicious hit. If you look, more Lion’s and 49ers were fined. I agree that Williams should be banned for life and that Payton and Loomis should receive some sort of suspension or fine. But, you Falcon fan’s need to get off your high horse and realize that this is football. I am so glad that Michael Vick has been forgiven and not one of your player’s haa ever made a malicious hit or retaliated for a hit against a teammate. I just wonder, who else has a “bounty” program in place. If you think it is just the Saints, then you are definitely smoking too much crack rock. BTW, New Orleans is only stinky because all of the visitors from around the country visit and decided to vomit and relieve themselves in the street. I have seen the same things happen in Atlanta.
whodatJackieJ
March 6th, 2012
7:30 pm
C’mon, girl. You know New Orleans is dirtier than Atlanta. That’s why many of us aren’t in a rush to go back.
cajungirl
March 6th, 2012
7:32 pm
I know it is, but it is not because of the locals.