you can't be surprised that they are making an example of this.

i'll bet nobody snitches about these bounties again.

definitely way too harsh

shouldn't be worse than what belichick got for spygate

supposedly, shockey was the bounty snitch, according to warren sapp

good for shockey

fuck these guys

unbelievable. beli-DICKHEAD was literally cheating, and the punishment for the saints is worse? fuck shockey that crybaby little douchebag.

aren't bounties technically cheating? subverting the salary cap?

and i'd assume if the NFL caught Belichek, told him to stop and then he continued to keep on truckin' that the NEP fine would have been harsher than it was.

This was harsh no doubt, but when the league warns you and you ignore their warnings and then leave a paper trail...you're probably going to receive an extra spank.

Go over to NOLA.com and read those threads. Hilarious.
Even though it'll never happen, Brees without a contract leaving for another team would be the frosting on the cake.

thanks for lightening things up. Jesus, man.

haha. i'm in the compliance business so i like it when the man wins.

I'm surprised by the level of the backlash down there. The bounty was some dirty shit, and they got caught... wtf did you think was going to happen? I may be missing something but I have some fb friends down there and there are some hilarious status updates being furiously posted today. It's not some conspiracy to "get you," you fucked up horribly and got caught.

And all this in the era of finally starting to address the massive long-term damage these guys do to their brains with all the concussions... seems like a really bad time to be explicitly instructing and paying people to give other people concussions.

ok, now i'm glad payton got the one-year ban

It's not even that they caught, it's that they got caught, were given every chance to clean it up and then continually lied to the NFL for three years while continuing to do what they had been told not to do. The NFL employs ex FBI as their investigators so everytime the Saints lied it was like lying to the Feds--they know the answers to the questions before they ask them so lying just gets you deeper and deeper in the shit.

My favorite conspiracy theory: This is all to get Brees and Payton to Dallas. America's Team!

My response to conspiracy theories: The NFL stepped in to save the Saints after Katrina when they very easily could have gone away and now they are going to screw them over? Yeah, right.

With Jerry Jones pulling the strings, Brees & Payton would end up in Texas, but in Houston, & the Boys would get Matt Schaub. Who would promptly play three games before suffering a career ending injury. (& somehow, Romo would end up in Philly. & still suck.)

Can someone explain why there needs to be hearings on this?

I was thinking the same thing. I'm sure we could come up with a few things that the American public agree are more important.

The feds have a 95% conviction rate; that ain't as undefeated as pussy, but its pretty darn close.

Also, WTF?. It may be a good quip with a southern drawl but it just ain't true.

Strange may be THE best. Underrated if anything.

And momma's home cooking??? Who in the hell is this carpetbagger Gar's workin with?

P.L. Blake


His dad is one of the guys in the hard hats here:

i think the saints coaches are complete jackasses. no doubt. the bounty program is meaningless, we all know that, but litigation risk talks. HOWEVER, someone explain how belichick's cheating is not worse than this?

2 reasons. Timing and lying.

No doubt Spygate was an affront to the integrity of the game, but ultimately the players still had to make the plays. Did it give them an edge? Of course but once they were caught they were pretty open and disclosed lots of the tapes (for the most part) eventually. Don't forget that the Pats lost a 1st rounder because of that and Belichick was fined 500K. The single largest fine to a coach to date in NFL history.

Bountygate happened at a time when concussions and player safety are at the forefront of NFL issues after a contentious CBA. Also, as Bloor pointed out, they openly lied at every turn about it. This was an issue of causing bodily harm for money. Not an image the NFL wants and everyone knows they protect the shield with everything they've got. The punishment had to be severe enough that John Q. Public understood that the NFL would not tolerate this.

I agree with most everything that's been said. I still don't think it warrants an entire season suspension. Belichick fined 500K. Payton being fined ~6 Mil.

Also, why the hell does every scandal have to have -gate attached to it? Nixon's paid enough.

the litigation exposure you mentioned above is the big differentiator here. now the nfl's lawyers can say this is just another example of how they "took strong and immediate action to protect the current and future health of NFL players . . ."

plus these motherfucks lied and acted like they were above the NFL/Goodell. god's wrath is raining down from on high.