Wow. This is really amazing. I certainly didn’t expect the league to come down this severely.
Wow, those are some harsh penalties. Not necessarily inappropriate, but much harsher than I expected. Has a head coach ever been suspended for a whole year?
The half million in fines is probably not crushing, but two second round picks? Ouch!
I’d seen some reports that these were likely to be the harshest penalties the NFL has ever handed out to a team, which sounds right to me. I’m not surprised that Williams isn’t being allowed to coach, and I wondered if he was going to be let go or step down from the Rams even before this happened. But I didn’t think Payton would be out for a whole year.
I wonder how this will affect the Drew Brees signing
Wow. Those are some harsh sanctions, albeit well-deserved.
When I first saw this on the 49ers section of SB Nation, I thought it was a joke, like, “This is what it ought to be, let’s see the pittance the suspensions actually are…” Wow.
No word on player punishments. Based on the coaches, etc., I would expect no less than half a year for most guys, and a year for Vilma.
Damn that is harsh.
Merged aceplace57’s thread into this one.
Not at all surprised.
It’s not just the bounties, though given the more we learn about concussions and long-term health, the league has an vital need to demonstrate that they care very much about safety in order to reduce their liability.
Making things much worse is that all concerned flat-out lied to NFL investigators over a period of years. Goodell can and should be merciless about that.
I’m shocked at Payton’s suspension. I would have guessed 8 games for him would be harsh. The rest isn’t surprising.
Nothing has changed. Defensive players get multimillion dollar contracts for their hard hitting play. You get cut unless you deliver the hits.
Bountys were stupid and unnecessary for guys with multimillion dollar contracts.
Unless the offensive guys start sucking pacifiers and wear diapers the NFL will always be a mans game. Players like Dick Butkus and Mike Ditka didn’t need bountys to knock the shit out of guys.
Talk on the local ESPN radio here is that Payton’s affiliation with Mike Ornstein certainly didn’t give Goodell much room for any kind of leniance even if he’d been so inclined.
:rolleyes: The issue here is deliberately injuring people, not just knocking the shit out of them. The money involved was pocket change (although it did balance the NFL’s fines) - it was a pride thing.
I disagree with Payton being suspended for a full year while Loomis only gets half a year. I think it should be the other way around. Loomis outranks Payton, and should get the stiffer penalty in my opinion.
The fine doesn’t really matter. That’s what…concession money from one game?
The 2 second round picks hurt. We don’t have a first round pick this year, so now we won’t get anybody until the third round of the draft…I think. We may have traded that pick, too.
Also not a big fan of the indefinite suspension for Williams. If you want to ban the guy outright, fine…do it. Otherwise, tell him how long he’s got to serve. Two-three years maybe.
That said, I applaud Goodell and the NFL for taking strong action here. Yeah, it’s my team, and the sanctions are tough…but so was the violation. Hopefully, this sends the message that this must never happen again.
On the up side, I hope Payton’s suspension means I won’t have to see that lame ass end around play he runs in damn near every game. I hate that shit.
I think they’re trying to strong arm Williams to rat out the Redskins and Bills. Name names or kiss your career goodbye.
But there doesn’t seem to be any evidence they actually tried, or succeeded in deliberately injuring someone. It’s pretty easy as a 350lb guy to “accidentally” fall on a guy’s knee if you really wanted to injure them. That didn’t happen afaik.
duplicate post
Um…did you watch the NFC Championship game when they went after Favre? Or Malcom Jenkins leading with his head over and over…sometimes on a player going out of bounds? I’m afraid there’s plenty of video evidence of very questionable hits over the last few seasons.
You and I already did this, and I pointed out the following: the Saints knocked Brett Favre and Kurt Warner out of playoff games, both of which carried big rewards in the bounty pool, and they were one of the most penalized teams in the NFL despite having a quality defensive coordinator in Williams (so it wasn’t because they were a bad or undisciplined defense). And regardless of whether you think the Saints played dirtier because of their gambling, the NFL does not want this kind of thing to go on. It’s a given that players will sometimes get hurt in games, but specifically encouraging serious injuries is a different matter.