The Saints Get What They Deserve

No offense to Mr. Tim Tebow, but the most significant NFL news of the day is the harsh punishment handed to the New Orleans Saints for their bounty program under defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.  Saints Head Coach Sean Payton, one of the most respect coaches in the league, was given a yearlong suspension of his duties, and Williams, now with the St. Louis Rams, was indefinitely banned from the league.  The Saints were also fined 500,000 dollars, as well as losing 2^nd round picks in the next two drafts.  NFL Commissioner and friend of the blog Roger Goodell came down on the Saints with an iron fist, as was expected based on his harsh history of penalties for player and team conduct issues.

While this punishment may seem draconian, it may have been a necessary measure to set the precedent that bounty programs simply will not be tolerated.  One particularly telling quote from Goodell’s statement on the punishment was:  “When there is targeting of players for injury and cash rewards over a three-year period, the involvement of the coaching staff, and three years of denials and willful disrespect of the rules, a strong and lasting message must be sent that such conduct is totally unacceptable and has no place in the game.”

While it’s a shame that the Saints, one of the most likeable and popular teams in the league, will be without their coach and that Payton will be sitting at home for a year, the fact of the matter is that they got caught doing something completely unacceptable, and they have to pay the price.  More importantly, maybe, any teams around the league that have a bounty system, which there probably are, will see this harsh punishment as even more incentive to stop the program.  Goodell seized this opportunity, especially with such a high profile team and coach, to send a message that bounty programs simply will not be tolerated.

Perhaps most importantly, this scandal really gets to the core issue that the league has been struggling with for the past few years, which is the delicate balance between player safety and entertainment, and playing “the way the game is supposed to be played”.  In the old days, some would say the good old days, safeties were applauded for destroying receivers coming over the middle, quarterbacks were pounded if they took too long to get rid of the ball, and nobody wanted to get near players like Ronnie Lott and Lawrence Taylor.  While this was certainly an exciting brand of football, in the long run, it is an unsustainable brand.  What type of parent is going to be ok with their kids playing football with the current research available about its adverse effects on mental health?  If the game wants to continue, to enjoy the storied history that baseball has enjoyed in this country, to truly become America’s game, and expand worldwide, player safety has to be the main concern.  For this reason, and for pure ethical reasons, the bounty system is completely unacceptable, and the Saints’ punishment was a necessary evil to change the culture of the league and protect the sport.