NFL: Saints Bounty Thread

[AsylumGuido]

(09-01-2012 07:48 PM)JDaveG Wrote:  So if they weren't targeted, how are they a "sacrificial lamb?"

That's what you said -- that "the sacrificial lamb was CHOSEN -- the Saints" (emphasis mine). Why were they chosen?

They were "chosen" because Goodell thought he would be able to make an example of them given his trustworthy informant, Mike Cerullo. It could have just as easily been any one of the other many teams in the NFL with exactly the same sort of program going on. But, the Saints just happened to have an ex-defensive quality control coach who was fired for lying to management on multiple occasions and had repeatedly blamed Loomis and Payton for having him black-balled from the NFL. In fact, he never did get a job within the NFL since.

They were "chosen" because Cerullo laid them out on the alter.

As I have pointed out countless times before, I don't feel Goodell lied about the whole thing. I truly think he felt justified due to what he was told by Cerullo and by what he interpreted by interviewing Williams, Vitt and Hargrove. I also feel that he was predisposed to the end findings and ignored many important facts and made many faulty conclusions.

As you pointed out:

"The bounty prohibition forbids offering or accepting any reward - cash or otherwise - for on-field misconduct, plays that incentivize or result in injury to opposing players, or for performance against an opposing player, group of players, or team."

But, this had never been called a "bounty prohibition" before and this was not why they were all so severely punished. From the beginning the Saints were accused of placing bounties on the heads of specific players who were to be targeted for intentional injury. Seven Saints players and coaches swore under oath in court before Judge Ginger Berrigan that no bounties were ever in place as Goodell had claimed.

If there had been the punishments may have been justified, but there should have NEVER been year long suspension and such for the breaking of a rule while playing the game as it is played every week by every player on every team. And Judge Berrigan said as much in her statement that she would likely grant Vilma the restraining order because she found the NFL's disciplinary process in the bounty matter unfair and the punishment excessive.