NFL Declares Mutiny on Bounties

New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton after team's Super Bowl win, 7 Feb. 2010 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)In response to evidence that New Orleans Saints players had been targeting--and deliberately trying to injure--opposing quarterbacks such as Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers for thousands of dollars, while coaches either encouraged the practice or looked the other way, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell decided to show some spine (unlike other commissioners) and meted out the following punishment for the decidedly un-Saintly behavior:

• Head coach Sean Payton was suspended for the 2012 season without pay.  That means he's just lost over $7 million.
• Some assistants and the Saints' general manager got partial suspensions.
• The Saints were fined $500,000, with their second-round draft picks for this year and next taken away.

What will happen to the players involved is the other shoe to be dropped soon.

Goodell wanted to send a message that the violence leading to concussions and other serious injuries on the field have been negatively impacting the game, and will no longer be tolerated.  Which is hardly a surprise because, due to the growing number of former players threatening legal action for the league's alleged indifference to their health problems caused by injuries, they've been going in another direction for some time.  For instance, quarterbacks are now being treated as protected species, to the consternation of certain defensive backs.

It would be nice to think that Goodell's actions eventually will result in a kinder, gentler NFL.  Since the league (and football itself) became America's national pastime because of the violence and action it sells, the chances of that happening are not good.  Anything less, and the NFL will be faced with empty stadiums and declining TV ratings.

As for the Saints, this has transformed them from a feel-good story in post-Katrina New Orleans into the dirtiest team in the NFL.  Besides offering cash bounties for injuring the other team's player, they were one of the league leaders in roughing-the-passer penalties.  But you can't argue with the results.  After all, the Saints did win a Super Bowl, and the NFL is not going to take that away from them.  Who says crime doesn't pay?