Goodell sends right message, slamming Saints, Payton
It was Gregg Williams' (right) bounty program, but Sean Payton allowed him to do it. (AP photo)
(Last updated: 2:20 p.m.)
Roger Goodell got it right Wednesday – not just for coming down hard on the New Orleans Saints in general and coach Sean Payton in particular, but for slamming somebody who doesn’t wear a uniform.
The NFL commissioner suspended Payton, the Saints’ head coach, for the entire 2012 season for his role in the team’s bounty program. He also suspended former New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams (now with St. Louis) for at least one year, assistant head coach Joe Vitt for six games and general manager Mickey Loomis for eight games. The Saints also will lose two second-round draft picks (2012 and 2013) and must pay a $500,000 fine.
The Saints will be allowed to keep their shoes.
Player discipline will be forthcoming. But the punishment against Payton and the team, while harsh, is justified. The Saints not only implemented a bounty program that “endangered player safety over a three-year period,” quoting from the NFL’s official news release (or jury verdict), but they lied about it. Allegations regarding the 2009 Super Bowl season initially were investigated in 2010, but couldn’t be proved. Team officials denied it then, and again this past season when new evidence surfaced.
The league referenced, “a deliberate effort to conceal the program’s existence from league investigators, and a clear determination to maintain the program despite express direction from Saints ownership that it stop as well as ongoing inquiries from the league office.”
If we know one thing about Roger Goodell, it’s that he doesn’t like being lied to.
“We are all accountable and responsible for player health and safety and the integrity of the game,” he said. “We will not tolerate conduct or a culture that undermines those priorities.”
Don’t confuse the NFL’s licensed violence with premeditated assault. As former Chicago Bears safety Doug Plank said two weeks ago, “I can’t believe a coach, a team or an organization would stand behind that [bounty] policy. 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.”
Given the backdrop, it's safe to assume this photo was taken back when Goodell was welcome at the Saints' facility. (AP photo)
The investigation revealed the Saints placed bounties on four opposing quarterbacks: Brett Favre, Cam Newton, Aaron Rodgers and Kurt Warner. It said the Saints’ Jonathan Vilma “offered $10,000 to any player who knocked Brett Favre out of the [2009] NFC championship game.”
Was it Goodell’s objective to make an example of the Saints? Absolutely. His mission is to “protect the shield.” The ripple effect of this punishment will be felt in 31 other front offices.
But this particularly sends a great message to players. Goodell has been known as “the discipline” commissioner. For the past several seasons, he has come down hard on players for on- and off-the-field actions that he believes casts the league in a negative light. There has been a perception he is not equally tough on coaches or team officials. (An exception: “Spygate.” Goodell disciplined the New England Patriots for videotaping the New York Jets’ defensive hand signals in 2007 and took a first-round draft pick away from the team.)
Goodell largely is viewed as the owners’ guy. Of course, he is. He works for the 32 NFL owners, not the 1,700 players. That was reaffirmed with several comments he made during collective-bargaining talks and the lockout before last season.
But there is no dispute here. If Goodell didn’t wreck the Saints, he certainly left them doubled-over.
A recent Super Bowl winner – and the Falcons’ primary competition in the NFC South – just lost its head coach (Payton), his top assistant (Vitt) and its general manager (Loomis). The $500,000 fine means little. The two second-round picks mean significantly more.
Saints owner Tom Benson will not invite Goodell to dinner at Commander’s Palace any time soon.
Goodell said the involvement of players is still being reviewed and punishment will be decided at a future time. But coming down on those not wearing the uniforms is significant. He made the right call.
By Jeff Schultz
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562 comments Add your comment
M&M
March 21st, 2012
7:03 pm
eharmony keeps matching me with my mom’s mom
March 21st, 2012
7:01 pm
Any bounties taken out on guys who could actually get payback?
The people who carries it out.
Really?
March 21st, 2012
7:04 pm
Heh Really?… that’s been mine for a couple of years!!! Get your own moniker.. really
Geez, Pathetic!!!! Really! There should be some simple program that matches Name with E-mail so stuff like this doesn’t happen.
M&M
March 21st, 2012
7:04 pm
I bet all the 31 NFL Teams hate the Saints. And I know, Hate is a strong word.
M&M
March 21st, 2012
7:06 pm
Really Brees ?! He’s a great coach ?! You have lost all respect for yourself. So sad !
Redcoat
March 21st, 2012
7:09 pm
SeenThisB4……..When the Falcons win the Superbowl, they’ll have earned it! Why did your organization not stop the bounty when warned? Why be Lairs too?
Redcoat
March 21st, 2012
7:12 pm
*liars
SeenThisB4
March 21st, 2012
7:13 pm
Redcoat: When the falcan’ts win the Superbowl, everyone that’s alive now, will be dead.
As for why my organization did not stop the bounty when warned? Beats me. They should have, and now they will pay the penalty for not doing so.
The Saints will still be a formidable team, and still be favored to win the division. Which again, says more about your sorry team, than ours.
Sid
March 21st, 2012
7:17 pm
SeenThisB4
March 21st, 2012
6:57 pm
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You calling Dled a writer…………..?? Now I know you are ill. Hell, the Falcons don’t even like him.
Your delusion begins with the fact you think you are a champion of the Saints………and frankly
you are nothing. And as the Saints players take their hits and the season begins you will soon realize that every breath of competiton has been squeezed out of the lungs of your beloved team, cheaters as they are. So you can post here all you want, I won’t get in a battle of wits with you, (don’t want to fight an unarmed boy). Champion all you want, your team is still filled with athletes trying to maim for money.
Redcoat
March 21st, 2012
7:20 pm
SeenThisB4………..So you are still proud of your Liars? You don’t care what they do, right?
SeenThisB4
March 21st, 2012
7:25 pm
Sid: Don’t give me any of that sanctimonious garbage. Your team is filled with the same type of athletes. The difference is that we had a malcontent in our organization that turned states evidence for Goodell. It could very well been your team in the execution table today.
Delusion or not, they don’t really matter too much, the penalities that is. We get Brees signed, and we will, and we skyrocket to the favored status to win the division again.
Your team has bigger problems than we do. And if you don’t admit to it, then you’re the one with the delusion.
SO GLAD
March 21st, 2012
7:28 pm
Couldn’t have happened to a better team….should strip them of their SB and that would be icing on the cake!!! You lied, were arrogant and now you got your a$$$ handed to you.. Can’t wait for them to get the players next.
Sid
March 21st, 2012
7:28 pm
SeenThisB4
March 21st, 2012
7:13 pm
The Saints will still be a formidable team, and still be favored to win the division.
**************************************************
Delusional defined.
Redcoat
March 21st, 2012
7:29 pm
SeenThisB4………….You think your team may need a name and/or coach change to start the new PR campaign they will have to spend a ton of money on?
SeenThisB4
March 21st, 2012
7:30 pm
@Redcoat: I don’t care if they lied, and I don’t care if they had bounties. They are paying the price for their errors, and ergo, like it or not, are going to be allowed to beat the daylights out of your team again this year! Just win baby.
I’m out of here girls, I think you all are getting too self righteous! LOL! Oh and by the way:
GEAUX SAINTS!!!
SeenThisB4
March 21st, 2012
7:32 pm
RedCoat: I doubt they get a new head coach. Unless Benson fires Payton, which he won’t. Carmichael will head the offense, and Spags the defense, and the two will develop the weekly game plans.
the focus now is to sign Brees.
Sid
March 21st, 2012
7:32 pm
SeenThisB4
March 21st, 2012
7:25 pm
Sid: Don’t give me any of that sanctimonious garbage. Your team is filled with the same type of athletes. The difference is that we had a malcontent in our organization that turned states evidence for Goodell. It could very well been your team in the execution table today.
Delusion or not, they don’t really matter too much, the penalities that is. We get Brees signed, and we will, and we skyrocket to the favored status to win the division again.
Your team has bigger problems than we do. And if you don’t admit to it, then you’re the one with the delusion.
*********************************************************
Seriously man, sanitation management is what you are all about. A malcontent? Look, your coach has admitted endorsing the program. Now really, who is delusional……..??
Redcoat
March 21st, 2012
7:33 pm
Seen……….I think i’ll take our “problems” over yours any day! “Bigger problems”, you are delusional.
SeenThisB4
March 21st, 2012
7:36 pm
Sid: Who do you think gave Goodell the evidence he needed to restart the investigation last year? Do you think it was Payton? Or Williams? Or Loomis?
Do you really think that Goodell had his investigators inside the Saints facility again, without hard evidence in hand first?
Don’t be naive man. Don’t be naive.
SeenThisB4
March 21st, 2012
7:38 pm
Redcoat: 2 points. 3 straight 1 and dones. Yeah, uh-huh. Okay, if you want to believe that we have bigger problems, fine with me.
We do need to sign another LB. Is Lofton still available?
Redcoat
March 21st, 2012
7:40 pm
And there you have it from Seen himself, the integrity of the”saints”, “we don’t care, so what, take out a few players, just so we win”.
SeenThisB4
March 21st, 2012
7:41 pm
And there you have the revisionist Redcoat. I didn’t say WE don care, I said “I” don’t care. I don’t presume to speak for anybody except myself.
SeenThisB4
March 21st, 2012
7:42 pm
I’m out gentlemen (and I use that term very loosely). Got a date with a Saintsation!
Redcoat
March 21st, 2012
7:44 pm
Seen……………Have you explained this all to Brees yet…….he said it needs explaining to him….he doesn’t understand…….cya 101…..haha
Redcoat
March 21st, 2012
7:47 pm
Seen, you sound like you’re there PR guy………you’re not? cya 101
Sid
March 21st, 2012
7:47 pm
Let me throw this out…………..if you have seen Drew Brees reaction to the penalties (thus far) on Twitter did anyone else get the sense that his real reaction was ” Holy Crap, I have got to find a new team and a multiyear contract”.
Redcoat
March 21st, 2012
7:48 pm
their*
Falcons
March 21st, 2012
7:50 pm
I guess Matt Ryan wasn’t worthy of a bounty!!!! It is perhaps telling they didnt want to knock him out of game The division got easier however falcons have yet to take step forward talent wise. Let’s make some moves and take the division.
Saints R.E.A.M.
March 21st, 2012
7:53 pm
At any rate the Saints still win the division. It also means that we will have to excel at scouting to make the most of our late draft picks and rely more heavily on free agent signings. Sure the penalties hurt but…..its no worse than trading away a bunch of picks for a Wide Receiver!!!
Also we don’t know what “suspension” really means? Will S. Payton be able to communicate with the team at all? Either way because he empowered other coaches instead of doing everything himself…..they will be ready to defend the Division Title.
Super Bowl Champs (Twice Removed)
March 21st, 2012
7:53 pm
We did a dumb thing. Time to man up and deal with it. Life is about overcoming obstacles. Let’s make 2012 the best season ever! WHO DAT!
Redcoat
March 21st, 2012
7:54 pm
Sid, he sounded a little too “dumb” with his response, covering his a$$, but agree he must be thinking it
Did not make the list?
March 21st, 2012
7:59 pm
How great is it that all of these falcon fans are reveling about an off field issue. Guess what, we will take all of our frustration out on Matt Ryan (who was not good enough to make our pool)!! Our suspensions provide little relief for your wretched team or any other team that will be unfortunate enough to get beat down by 40pts.
Sid
March 21st, 2012
8:02 pm
Falcons
March 21st, 2012
7:50 pm
I guess Matt Ryan wasn’t worthy of a bounty!!!! It is perhaps telling they didnt want to knock him out of game The division got easier however falcons have yet to take step forward talent wise. Let’s make some moves and take the division.
***************************************************
Another troll trying to sound magnanimous.
Sid
March 21st, 2012
8:03 pm
Saints R.E.A.M.
March 21st, 2012
7:53 pm
At any rate the Saints still win the division. It also means that we will have to excel at scouting to make the most of our late draft picks and rely more heavily on free agent signings. Sure the penalties hurt but…..its no worse than trading away a bunch of picks for a Wide Receiver!!!
Also we don’t know what “suspension” really means? Will S. Payton be able to communicate with the team at all? Either way because he empowered other coaches instead of doing everything himself…..they will be ready to defend the Division Title.
***************************************************************
Stupid post of the Day award.
Sid
March 21st, 2012
8:05 pm
Did not make the list?
March 21st, 2012
7:59 pm
How great is it that all of these falcon fans are reveling about an off field issue. Guess what, we will take all of our frustration out on Matt Ryan (who was not good enough to make our pool)!! Our suspensions provide little relief for your wretched team or any other team that will be unfortunate enough to get beat down by 40pts.
***********************************************
Maybe I should have read this one before I made the other one “Stupid Post of the Day”.
Sid
March 21st, 2012
8:08 pm
Super Bowl Champs (Twice Removed)
March 21st, 2012
7:53 pm
We did a dumb thing. Time to man up and deal with it. Life is about overcoming obstacles. Let’s make 2012 the best season ever! WHO DAT!
********************************************************
Who Dat Fan……………………….GOOD LUCK TO YOU!!! (you are gonna need it)
Falcons
March 21st, 2012
8:21 pm
It’s good Sid is the ultimate policeman. Reality is this brings saints down to pack but our home tam has not done enough to get better. Falcons can take division but still need to improve on D line and O line. Not much done in free agency. Let’s hope there are some moves left maybe at draft time. A couple of moves and the division is ours. Not the best way to take the division but I didn’t see the saints fans crying tears when Vick went off to jail.
yo vince
March 21st, 2012
8:28 pm
Soooo, the NFL gives them a Super Bowl ring, and then find out they cheated all the way there. I thought so. The Ain’ts will always suck, unless they cheat or get charity
saintsation777
March 21st, 2012
8:29 pm
Poor falcon fans what you all failed to realizeis that Sean Payton actually didn’t coach the game on your own field where you all failed to get one inch on the 4th down play against that poor pathetic defense we have that we can finally get rid of now. New coordinator, a great one at that with a new defense including one of your players teaming up with our offense that won 99% of our games whom still intact, I have a feeling it will be another good year for my Saints again. You people need to worry about your own pathetic team along with the lil Vikings who are still whining when they had 2 chances to beatus and got blown out on their own field by the same players who beat them in the title game. CASE CLOSED
Nativebird
March 21st, 2012
8:32 pm
I love it. Wipes that smug holier than though look right ofF Peytons face. As for Williams, he ought not to be allowed to step foot on a football sideline again. Good riddance punk. If I was ANY player severely injured while playing the Saints over the last 4 years….I’d be talking to my attorney right now.
tyler
March 21st, 2012
8:33 pm
The punishment for the Saints is right in line for how Goodell has dealt with previous instances when he has been lied to. The guy is harsh so this is no different. With the insane amount of money he has fined players for hits, this punishment had to be severe for him to maintain any sort of credibility.I’m just glad it was’nt the Falcons.
Terry
March 21st, 2012
8:40 pm
You Saints Fans do realize the players on the defensive side of your team that were involved will be next on the chopping block? Y’all mite not be able to field a defense by the time Goodell is though with your Saints Team.
Terry
March 21st, 2012
8:44 pm
To the Saint Fan, talking about your Defense taking out frustrations on Matt Ryan, I would think, that all those other teams QB’s that y’all had a pool on, have friends on the defensive side of the ball, that mite just do the same to Drew Bree’s.
saintsation777
March 21st, 2012
8:44 pm
hey terry
Thats great news!!!Our defense was the worst. Can’t do any worse. I hope all of them get suspended. Our offense who won 99% of the games are still intact.
Chef Boyardee
March 21st, 2012
8:45 pm
Old time hockey.
Go Back Inside Your (FEMA)Trailers!
March 21st, 2012
8:47 pm
Hey….now Greg Williams and SeenThisB4 can model mens’ bras together…..Plenty of those transvestite-types in that skanky city of theirs
doug lite
March 21st, 2012
8:52 pm
BWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAAAAAAA
The ‘ain’ts are back to being the GARBAGE that they always were.
doug lite
March 21st, 2012
8:53 pm
BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA
Dear gawd I am LOVING this!!!!!
BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA
bayou Bird
March 21st, 2012
8:56 pm
Too bad the only way the Falcons can be the Saints, win and then you can talk , ironically your quarterback was not on hit list no need to. Same Saints over Falcons again next year.
s
JSS
March 21st, 2012
8:59 pm
A bounty on Matt Ryan is an oxymoron… He’s 2-5 against the Trip To Bountyville! Trust this, they want him on the field, he’s the gift that keeps on giving (victories to opponents above .500)!
JSS
March 21st, 2012
9:00 pm
@ Jeff Schultz…
Check your filter on the Bisher comments if you get a chance…