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Punish the New Orleans Sinners

By on 3.6.12 @ 6:08AM

My beloved NFL team merits harsh sanctions.

Football is a violent sport. But the point of football is the sport, not the violence.

If, and I repeat if, all the allegations about the New Orleans Saints’ “bounty” program against opposing players are true as alleged in news reports, then Saints former Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams and Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis should both be banned from the National Football League for life, Saints head coach Sean Payton ought to be fined at least a million dollars, and some Saints players should be suspended for as long as a full season (with concomitant loss of salaries). The Saints ought to be docked their 2nd round draft choice this year (they have no first rounder in 2012) and another 2nd and 3rd rounder next year.

And other teams, such as the Washington Redskins, that also had bounty systems should pay at least some price as well, even if a far lesser one.

Again, these sanction suggestions are based on current reporting. The reports are that A) Williams directly oversaw, at Washington and New Orleans, a “bounty” system whereby players were rewarded not just for good plays such as interceptions and fumble recoveries, but actually for injuring opponents; B) that Loomis knew about the program, was ordered to stop it, and instead allowed it to continue while denying its existence; C) that Payton vaguely knew about it and did nothing to stop it; D) that some players were more active participants than others, with middle linebacker Jonathan Vilma reportedly offering a $10,000 bounty for knocking star quarterback Brett Favre out of the NFC championship game in 2010.

Let’s unpack these issues. First, let’s explain what should not be at issue here: good, clean hits. If the NFL has a rule against bonuses for good plays such as fumble recoveries, big catches, or anything else clean and legal, then it’s a stupid rule. The NFL is full of stupid rules. The NFL has gone overboard in penalizing clean hits where helmets happen to touch other helmets, or where “defenseless” receivers are separated from the ball (how, in the high-speed course of a play, are defenders supposed to figure out when a receiver is “defenseless” or not???), or where quarterbacks are treated by the officials like porcelain dolls rather than like athletes in a violent sport. Yes, even stupid rules ought to be followed and enforced (until repealed), but violations thereof should not carry major penalties.

The NFL also is hardly a beacon of morality. It nearly rivals Hollywood in the way it peddles smut (Madonna at halftime? Really?) and other cultural debasements. But it offers a game that is endlessly fascinating, brawny and brainy at the same time, hugely entertaining — and operated on the most level playing field, with a salary cap and other equalizers, in professional sports.

Part of that level playing field includes an insistence that rules (even stupid ones) be followed — and a large number of the rules, especially recently, are specifically designed to protect players from reckless infliction of injuries. This protects both the integrity of the game itself (teams should not lose their best players, and thus a decent chance of victory to cheap shots) and the basic human values that insist that nobody should be deliberately maimed for life. We are, after all, civilized people. We have moved beyond gladiators-versus-lions, beyond the Aztec game of ullamaliztli where the penalty for defeat is death. We want no more Darryl Stingley incidents (even though that hit itself was perfectly legal). We want fewer Mike Websters suffering horrible maladies while their lives are cut short.

Yet these are the sorts of things that Williams and Vilma — and Loomis by extension, if reports are accurate — actively encouraged. This is not about intimidating somebody or hitting them hard in order that they be less able to play well; this is about hurting them so badly that they cannot play at all. Even in a violent game like football, this is unconscionable.

I write this as an absolutely devoted Saints fan whose family has held season tickets since the first year of the franchise, who never missed a home game even when the team went 1-15, who can recite details of games in 1970 like they were yesterday, who helped cover Saints games for the Times-Picayune, who played golf with members of the Saints, and who once tried to start a groundswell for Archie Manning to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame eight years before any of his sons ever took an NFL snap. I literally cried with joy when the Saints returned to the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. I’ve fallen on the floor literally gasping for breath after a last-second win. I’ve drunk a toast in absentia to a kicker named Happy Feller 40 years after he last attempted a field goal. I would no more want to see the Saints be put at a competitive disadvantage than I would want to see a good friend thrown in jail.

But bounties for injuries are reprehensible. They must be made grounds for severe penalties. Yes, the league ought to investigate reports that other teams do the same thing, and punish them accordingly as proof comes in. But for now, the Saints, and their increasingly ineffective former coach Gregg Williams (he’s the king of having one good year and then having his defenses deteriorate), should be made into strong, negative examples. Nothing should be done which puts the Saints at such a competitive disadvantage that the league balance is thrown askew and that the fans, too, be horrendously punished for something not their fault. But any well-calibrated penalties pushing right up to the edge of competitive disability ought to be contemplated, and probably assessed.

Even in a violent game, barbarity has no place.

About the Author

Quin Hillyer is a senior editor of The American Spectator and a senior fellow at the Center for Individual Freedom. Follow him on Twitter @QuinHillyer.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (22) |

Brian Mc| 3.6.12 @ 6:45AM

Subsistence pay equivalent to an E-4's earnings in Afhanistan sounds about right, Quinn. The resulting monetary penalty could be given to a New Orleans charity of their choice. And please forbid my beloved Steelers actively involved in this.

Richard Baker| 3.6.12 @ 6:45AM

Sorta think the other players will remember who was in on this on the field. "Oops, is that your ACL I heard pop? Sooo, sorry".

ggoblue| 3.6.12 @ 6:51AM

1970...lions...dempsey....yeah football stays with you forever.

GreatOne| 3.6.12 @ 7:13AM

All involved should be suspended for a year, with no pay. The Saints should lose not only their number one picks for the next two years, but they should also be stripped of their Super Bowl victory, much like the NCAA does to cheating schools. As a Viking fan, I remember that game very vividly, and it was obvious those a--holes were trying to hurt Favre. And sadly, it worked. Don't argue it's "all part of the game." B.S. Those viscious hits weren't put on him during the ordinary course of the game - they nailed him after he handed the ball off a few times, for goodness sakes. If an extremely strong message is not sent out that this behavior will not be tolerated, we will not have much of a game to enjoy in a few years, as the focus will shift to injuring players to win games. Peter King makes a strong argument that this deplorable conduct is behind Peyton Manning's neck injury, at the hands of the Gregg Williams-led Redskins defense.

(Of course, if former Vikings coach Brad Childress were not such a butthead, he would have re-signed future Hall of Fame center Matt Birk prior to the season. With Birk in there, no way the Saints would have been able to continuely blitz up the middle.)

Clint| 3.6.12 @ 7:31AM

We Used To Punish Receivers For Coming Out On Our Turf With Smash Face Tactics And Grab Off "Oskies" And Fumbles.

I'll Take My Payment In Gold.

Thank You Coach.

John - TMF| 3.6.12 @ 7:44AM

Color me Jade...

This is a phony controversy over a long held, common practice in a sport where every defender on every play is out to "tear the head off the quarterback".

The sport is violent, and it is NOT baseball or basketball. The violence is completely intended as a functional part of the sport. "Hit pools" have been a part of that "secret" for probably as long as two bunches of guys grabbed a ball, dressed in heavy clothing, and proceeded to pound the snot out of each other in an attempt to advance a oblong leather air-filled bladder across a line.

The only problem here is the waft of hypocrisy. New Orleans got caught. If they get punished, then every team in the NFL needs to stand up and offer itself up for punishment as well.

I do not have first-hand knowledge, nor do many people not in the "inside", but there is no way that this doesn't extend to every team in the Pros, and probably every team from Junior High on up.

The trigger line for the worry has come from the growing news story of the problems associated with a collision sport; concussions. Well, there is a simple intersection of human physiology and physics for why they occur. The brain smashes against the inside of the cranium during rapid deceleration episodes. More than that, because the brain isn't really connected to much of anything... it tends to bounce around inside the cranium when it is accelerated and decelerated at a differential rate than the cranium.

The second problem is traumatic joint injury. Torn knees, damaging sprains, hyperextended elbows... all have cumulative effects. (I personally have a nice block of titanium screwed into my spine between C6 and C7 for my high school efforts -that ultimately failed)

If the sport wants to eliminate the risk of concussion or traumatic joint injury then players need to be lighter, gravity needs to lessen, and flags need to be issued.

The first is possible, but improbable, the next is an absurdity, and the last is the destruction of the sport.

What needs to happen is that the league needs to use the existence of the New Orleans "Incentive" pool to examine just exactly what is going on, why it is occurring, and deal with the rational, not emotional need to correct or amend the situation.

1. Players are too heavy. Speaking as a fat person; no human was ever intended to be 300 plus pounds. If the league limits the maximum weight of players to 280, a small amount of the physical pressure would ablate, mostly with the joint injuries.

2. Lighten the equipment. Helmets are too heavy and too protective. I realize that this sounds counter intuitive, but guys who wore the old leather football helmets with no face masks were less likely to "light up" the opposing player. If tackles and hits were more "potentially painful" to the hitter and hittee, then the hits would become tackles. The current gear protects too much and discourages little.

A variation of the 1940's style uniform with lighter shoulder pads, heavier leg and thigh padding, and a modern carbon fiber variation of the old leather football helmet and light weight tear away face mask would go a long way toward reducing critical hit velocities.

3. Require linemen on both sides to wear knee braces. Make runners and receivers wear knee pads, and design light weight knee brace protection for them as well.

There are other things that would help, but the laws of physics will still apply. A head, no matter how well protected against impacts from the outside will not prevent the brain from slamming back and forth inside.

Fixing hit pools is going to be virtually impossible. It is human nature, and frankly should just be brought out in the open, and limited to incentive plans for good quality football, and known fines for bad quality football.

Fumble recovery - $$$$ bonus
Late Hit on the QB - $$$$$$ fine

Let the players govern it. In high school and college it was helmet stickers and public kudos, in the pros it's money.

Like I said, I am jaded.

When the fans aren't screaming "KILL THE QUARTERBACK!!!!" ; then there will be some change possible.

BTW - there needs to be a fine structure and punishments for line items in the hit list that relate to personal injury, "knock - outs, direct injury incentives... etc.” All CBA issues aside, that is for the players’ union to work out.

There are more than a few players and coaches, who will have to go, and the entire league should be involved, and every team investigated.

I just don't know how the league feels justified in punishing New Orleans, only, when they are probably not all that unusual.

r/TMF

Ned| 3.6.12 @ 11:32AM

1) why is ANYONE surprised?

2) who cares?

3) this crap is exactly why I stopped watching football years ago... the whole 'victory dance', in-your-face attitude of the current players, coaches and fans is disgusting. This incident merely reinforces my opinion of the league, it's play and it's players. There's very little "sport" involved.

Joe D.| 3.6.12 @ 1:47PM

I agree with the sever penalties. But I also agree that WR now where skirts like QBs do.

Ban Gregg Williams for at least 3 years.

yasha| 3.6.12 @ 2:22PM

The Saints probably deserve whatever harsh penalties they get. But all the whiny Vikings fans need to just shut up. Quit crying because the Saints prevented you from losing yet another Super Bowl.

GreatOne| 3.6.12 @ 2:46PM

Hey now! I resemble that remark.

Oldefarte| 3.6.12 @ 3:16PM

Quin, I too have been a Saints fan [and season ticket holder for numerous previous years while living in the New Orleans area], but once again and RESPECTFULLY I find myself slightly disagreeing with your learned opinion on this issue. If and until proof positive of actual detrimental to health instructions/orders were issued by Saints personnel regarding opponents, I will say that this is MUCH TO DO ABOUT NOTHING. Your mention of the Stingley situation is all of the proof that this violence has been occurring for wuite some time within the entire NFL[and if memory serves me, the Raiders DB that laid him out did not have the reputation of a choirboy and had done numerous questionable act previously as well]. I believe that all of the NFL teams practice such TAKE OUT IF POSSIBLE hits, tackles etc; and that the only difference between the Saints/Redskins under Williams and the other teams is the formality of an action plan of rewards etc by the coaches/administrators etc. Are you going to attempt to tell me that Buddy Ryan's defenses weren't practicing such TAKE OUT policies under his direction? Williams only formalized a scheme to motivate his defenses players by use of score cards etc. Additionally do the NFL referees have any fault possible here since they obviously did not penalize the Saints for overally agressive hits/play than they did for any other teams in the league, did they? Why should not the referees be pay docked and fired for not calling more penalties on the Saints/Redskins while this was supposedly occurring on the field? Why aren't Taliabu, Goodell etc held responsible.....did they not know or personally witness of such happenings right under their noses? Were the Saints penalized more than other teams in the league for onfield infraction, and if not why not [I'm certainly not aware of the Saints leading the league in penalties which should be a direct indication of such over aggression by them]? I simply think that this is a case of a motivational tool used by Williams to cause their defensive players to play up to their potential as athletes, and unless it can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they actually caused harm to numerous opponents by their illegal behavior, then they should fall under the legal term of being.......INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quin| 3.6.12 @ 3:19PM

Thanks, Oldefarte, my good friend. Please note that I did couch my column in the terms of "IF, and I repeat IF." That said, the Times-Pic reports that the league actually has emails from Sean Payton himself, to a friend of his, describing the bounties in some detail. All told, they have 18,000 emails. This looks like a case where there really is fire, and a big one, behind the smoke..... Alas....

Oldefarte| 3.6.12 @ 5:41PM

Quin, I'm not in disagreement with your analysis. I'm just saying that the FIRE has got to be LEAGUE WIDE, and not limited to one or two teams. If I'm correct in this, then the investigation of the Saints should become extrapolated to all of the NFL teams involving the extent of the players' attitudes regarding not just tackling etc an opponent, but instead laying the wood to same. I just think it universal throughout the NFL and has been so for some time.

Oldefarte| 3.7.12 @ 10:50AM

PS: [From the NYT]: '....effective steps to stop it, which is what they are doing now.”

Still, the reaction of players since the N.F.L. revealed its investigation — including those of Kurt Warner and Brett Favre, who were named by the league as targets of the Saints — indicates that most believe the incentives are a routine part of the game.....'

THKrupp| 3.6.12 @ 4:13PM

I remember when playing high school football this was a basic part of our strategy. Coach would have us focus on one or two of the other teams best players. I remember breaking the ribs of a teams quarterback once. They quit the game in the 3rd quarter. Another time we had a star fullback crying before the half and he never came back out on the field.

Pat| 3.6.12 @ 5:00PM

The point of NFL football is not violence, but it’s not sport either, it’s about the money. Practically every society develops their version of “NFL football” whenever excess wealth spawns excess leisure time – what else can you do on a Sunday afternoon but visit the Coliseum for some Lions vs. Christians action. That’s entertainment as they say and we should drop this entire Marquis of Queensberry rules, gentlemen’s handshake, “it’s not about winning and losing, it’s about how you play the game” obsession and concede that to us fans it’s about visual fun, harmless betting and providing a legitimate excuse to consume beer and gobs of guacamole dip on taco chips.

And in return for viewing ads for pick-up trucks and 12 bladed razors, we are treated to the best athletes from around the world performing in elaborately staged games within incredibly beautiful stadiums complete with 50 yard long electronic scoreboards – it’s one of the best deals going when it comes to quality entertainment and for a low, low view from home price.

And, unless you’re a Green Bay Packer shareholder, very, very few of us have a personal say in how the team is managed. And as to rules protecting players, that’s doesn’t become our business simply because we own a widescreen TV and a universal remote. As taxpayers, we may have a minor equity claim when it comes to college football played at state supported universities but we have no vested interest in protecting NFL players – mainly because the league and the team does an adequate job without our amateur assistance.

When a multi-millionaire owner awards his star quarterback a long term $30 million contract, of course there will be stringently enforced rules about “roughing” the quarterback – you protect an investment which is also why that same team owner carries high damage insurance on his Rolls. It’s not only about concern for the players as human beings but also about protecting an investment, why should the two goals be incompatible? So, our rights as football fans are limited to controlling our big screen TV’s via our remotes, period. Let the team owners and the League worry about excessive violence and we stick to what we know best – namely tailgating and guacamole dip.

W| 3.6.12 @ 5:49PM

During the 1970's the Oakland Raiders, notably Jack Tatum and George Atkinson, kept a score of how many players they "knocked out."

They would usually hit a wide receiver on the back of neck for the knockout. Tatum hit Daryl Stingley of the Pats this way. Stingley was paralyzed and Tatum never apologized or called Stingley.

Tatum and Atkingson knocked out Lynn Swann of the Steelers, and Swann had concussion problems thereafter and retired early. The Raiders stopped only because the Steelers and others teams attacked their players.

They should ban the coaches and players involved.

Alex| 3.6.12 @ 9:19PM

no..Tatum hit Stingley head on. Review the video. There was no contact to the back of the receiver's head. Stingley's head was down going for a ball, Tatum's head was down going for the man. A split second either way and Stingley continues his career.

W| 3.6.12 @ 10:30PM

You are correct that Tatum hit Stingley head on. But Tatum went straight for Stingley's head. Today it would be illegal. Just looked at the film on You Tube. He or Atkinson did knock out Swann with a head shot from behind. Stingley died in 2007 and Tatum also died.

Anthony M| 3.6.12 @ 8:19PM

As long as the hits are legal, where is the harm? If a player hit someone illegally after the whistle to collect, then he should be punished, but if he earned his bonus on a clean hit, I don't see a problem.

Alex| 3.6.12 @ 9:17PM

not fines, not draft choices. Suspensions. For long terms. Without pay. A 75K fine to someone making multi-millions is like a traffic ticket. Hard hits are part of the game; hits that attempt to injure are not.

Cara| 4.15.12 @ 7:10PM

I knew there had to be another reason
why I love you, Quin. (n addition to your writing)
It's because we are both Saints at heart.
I will always miss the green green grass of home.

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