Rumors are that Gregg Williams is going to be banned from the NFL. Sucks for the Rams, who did nothing wrong. Since Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton allegedly knew about this as well, shouldn't they both be banned, too?
I'm not morally outraged by the Saints, because I'm pretty sure it's widespread. I do think it's something that the NFL needs to come down on, because I think that while the NFL is a violent sport (and should be), there's a clear line in intent between wanting to hit hard to make the ball-carrier think twice the next time and wanting to cause injury. Like the Timberwolves back in the day, I think the Saints are going to be made an example of to try to scare other teams into stopping.
I'd be surprised if Williams got banned, but I could see him being suspended for a full year. I think Loomis and Payton will get smaller penalties because they didn't institute it themselves. As higher-ups, they carry responsibility but not as much as the actual wrong-doer.
I do not think it's widespread. I see no way that several teams are engaged in paying for purposefully injuring opponents. That may have been how it was in excess of 10 years ago, but no longer with the increased emphasis on player safety.
Seems to be a split of opinion among players...some are saying bounty systems are pretty common, others are saying they've never seen such a thing in the NFL.
Holy shit and WOW! Crazy punishments! Interesting to see where the Saints go from here. Too bad the Niners couldn't have stolen Brees away!
He should spend the year volunteering with the Ducks. Sean and Chip could learn a lot from each other.
I think it had to be done. The NFL gets sued all the time from former players over their injuries. The NFL learned about people intentionally trying to hurt people and took extremely steep action, in part because of former players complaints. I think you will see the players involved get slammed by this as well.
Agreed. The more we learn about the head trauma many former players go through, especially as they get older, having a program that rewarded players for knocking people down and out is just unacceptable. They had to set a severe example so it never, ever happens again.
I agree. Players and media make a gigantic stink about players taking too many shots and the player strike, er, "lockout" was in part a referendum for this kind of stuff. So the league has stepped up and walked the talk.