NFL: Saints Bounty Thread

[AsylumGuido]

(05-15-2012 09:58 PM)Falconidae Wrote:  So, where did he elaborate on that? sorry again, but I put Payton, bounty , email into Google, don't get anything about Payton explaining that away. Where did you?

And why, if that was a just a running joke,didn't he just say that?

Who is to know he didn't? All we heard from Goodell is that when Payton was asked, blindsided, about the email with the PS from Ornstein was this in the official announcement from Goodell:

When interviewed in 2012, Sean Payton claimed to be entirely unaware of the program, a claim contradicted by others. Further, prior to the Saints' opening game in 2011, Coach Payton received an email from a close associate that stated in part, "PS Greg Williams put me down for $5000 on Rogers (sic)." When shown the email during the course of the investigation, Coach Payton stated that it referred to a "bounty" on Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers.


Now, the media has reported that Payton said that the email referred to an ongoing bounty system. You see Goodell's official statement here. It doesn't say that. Does it not make since that when Payton was shown this email for the first time that he might say that it referred to a bounty, but that it was not a real bounty but an ongoing joke? At that point Goodell possibly had his mind made up and knew that by punishing a team for systematically injuring opponents may weaken the case against the league over the concussion issues.

Even if we could believe what Goodell stated that Payton said, it still doesn't give any proof whatsoever of a bounty system.