NFL Saints Found Guilty of in NFL Investigation

[Sotnos]

Originally Posted by Donnie D

I don't see why this is so difficult to understand.

From what Mav said & I've heard a few times on Duemig's show, it's very, VERY difficult for him & most of his listeners to understand this.

[BurnTHalO]

Originally Posted by Donnie D

It wasn't the money. As you pointed out, that was minimal. It was the attitude that management was encouraging their players to injure someone.

Since this is a hockey board, it wasn't encouraging the player to finish the check, it wasn't to clear out the crease, it wasn't to fight a player that was taking liberties with your best player, it was to injure a player.

I don't see why this is so difficult to understand.

Because that is the job of these players. This isn't a one off incident. As I keep saying, listen to former players, they all say the same thing: That it is their job to take a player out of the game by any legal method. Take hockey. Fine. Why do they never disclose what an injury is?

This is how football is. Look I'm not saying they shouldn't be punnished, I'm saying I don't understand why this punnishment is this much worse than all the others.

[Maverick9911]

The lies and the encouragement. Williams was warned. Then warned again. Then the Saints were caught red-handed and when confronted with the evidence, they all lied to Goodell. There was an organizational conspiracy (and a case could be made for criminal conspiracy as well, though that would be a little tougher), so the NFL was pretty much forced to do this. The Saints aren't the only team to have done this but now, this particular punishment will serve as optimal deterrence for anyone to even dare try this again from an organizational standpoint.

[BurnTHalO]

Originally Posted by Maverick9911

The lies and the encouragement. Williams was warned. Then warned again. Then the Saints were caught red-handed and when confronted with the evidence, they all lied to Goodell. There was an organizational conspiracy (and a case could be made for criminal conspiracy as well, though that would be a little tougher), so the NFL was pretty much forced to do this. The Saints aren't the only team to have done this but now, this particular punishment will serve as optimal deterrence for anyone to even dare try this again from an organizational standpoint.

Vick was in the EXACT same boat and got what, 2 games? He was questioned by Goodell years before about the dog fighting and continued to lie about his involvement in it.

[Maverick9911]

Not going to contest that isn't weird - I can't assume why the league would allow for such a discrepancy but maybe Vick's actual incarceration had something to do with it. I know he was "technically" suspended indefinitely in 2007 but those two years overlapped when he was in prison, so I don't understand the NFL's logic there.

Another angle, which may not even be in their realm of consideration, but it was addressed this morning on the "I'm not Sileo, thank God for that Show": The NFL knows they will get less resistance from suspended coaches/front office personnel than they would the players/NFLPA, which is why Vilma and Co. likely won't get punished as severely. Also, Payton and Williams, should the latter ever be reinstated, can ply their trade for three or four times as longer as these players can. Payton has ample time to recoup this $7.5 million loss, whereas such a financial loss to the majority of NFL players would be downright crippling. This isn't to say that Goodell should or did in fact consider these types of concerns but it's just another angle to consider.

[the_narrow_way]

Originally Posted by Donnie D

Since this is a hockey board, it wasn't encouraging the player to finish the check, it wasn't to clear out the crease, it wasn't to fight a player that was taking liberties with your best player, it was to injure a player. I don't see why this is so difficult to understand.

This.

[BurnTHalO]

Originally Posted by Maverick9911

Not going to contest that isn't weird - I can't assume why the league would allow for such a discrepancy but maybe Vick's actual incarceration had something to do with it. I know he was "technically" suspended indefinitely in 2007 but those two years overlapped when he was in prison, so I don't understand the NFL's logic there.

Another angle, which may not even be in their realm of consideration, but it was addressed this morning on the "I'm not Sileo, thank God for that Show": The NFL knows they will get less resistance from suspended coaches/front office personnel than they would the players/NFLPA, which is why Vilma and Co. likely won't get punished as severely. Also, Payton and Williams, should the latter ever be reinstated, can ply their trade for three or four times as longer as these players can. Payton has ample time to recoup this $7.5 million loss, whereas such a financial loss to the majority of NFL players would be downright crippling. This isn't to say that Goodell should or did in fact consider these types of concerns but it's just another angle to consider.

Interesting. I don't know how you suspend players when Suggs did it (and I believe succeeded) last year (or he hinted at doing it and succeeded) and he didn't even get a look.

And I still don't get why Payton got a year and Bellicheck got nothing. It just does not make sense why this penalty was SO much more severe than all others to me. I do think the Saints got hosed, and I'm not even a Saints fan.

[Donnie D]

I thought that they would lose a couple #1 picks, so I thought 2 seconds was light.

[Sotnos]

Now Fox wants to give Payton a job. Yeah, he's really being punished.

Four players suspended, one for a year.

Vilma, a linebacker who is still with the Saints, got suspended for a year, and teammate Smith, a defensive end, got a four-game suspension. Fujita, a linebacker with the Cleveland Browns, was suspended for three games while Hargrove, a defensive lineman now with the Green Bay Packers, got an eight-game suspension.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/02/sport/...html?hpt=hp_c2