Tag Archives: bountygate

Goodell Still Agrees With Himself

9 Oct

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is still sticking to his original punishment for Jonathan Vilma and Will Smith(not the actor) for their part in the bountygate scandal. This is despite the fact that an appeal panel that was created by the NFL’s labor agreement removed the original suspensions. The panel found no grounds in the NFL rules for the suspicions. That means that Vilma will still miss the entire season. Smith has already served his sentence but still wants to appeal to clear his name.

There was a little relief for former Saints defensive lineman Scott Fujita whose three-game suspension was cut to one game. Again Fujita has already played this season so the reduction is pointless. Free-agent Anthony Hargrove saw his suspension cut from eight-games to seven.

Most of the players have acknowledged that there was a pool but say it had nothing to do with intentionally hurting opposing players. Regardless for them this scandal came at time when the NFL is battling former players over life altering injuries. Players are arguing that they were not properly warned of the effects of playing football. The NFL has been making a strong effort to combat this notion. They are even running ads featuring players like Tom Brady pointing out the importance of early safety teaching. For Goodell the bounty scandal is a blemish that points to lack safety standards that needs to be erased. Therefore I wouldn’t expect to see Vilma on the field anytime soon.Which is not a good thing because the Saints need a stronger defense.

-M

 

 

 

 


Finally!!!! Drew Brees Agrees to a Contract

13 Jul

I had an internal bet that Dwight Howard would get traded before Drew Brees would sign a contract with the New Orleans Saints. The QB has been debating his contract for what seems like forever. If you remember he was not happy with the Saints for not giving him a long-term commitment. Now Brees has agreed to a five-year contract for $100 million. Of that he is guaranteed $60 million.

For this season alone Brees will make $40 million. So if we have learned anything from this Brees debacle it’s that waiting does pay off. Brees has been sitting out of off-season practices while waiting for a good offer. And according to his Twitter Brees is one happy man, “Deal is Done! Love you, Who Dat Nation. See you soon!”

So congrats Brees. You are playing for the most corrupt team in league.

-M

Hargrove: It Wasn’t Me

19 Jun

One thing is clear about New Orleans Saints Bountygate the NFL and Roger Goodell are fighting their case with the press. Monday the NFL gave more evidence out to reports. This time it was a video clip from the 2010 NFC championship game, where a voice made a money comment about injuring then-Viking QB Brett Favre. The NFL is asserting that the voice was former Saints’ defensive end Anthony Hargrove. The clip was part of  the appeal hearing by Hargrove. Today Hargrove is letting the media know that voice was not him. But it’s kind of suspicious that in that same game Hargrove was flagged and later fined $5,000 for a flagrant hit on Favre. No worries Favre returned to play in that game meaning if he was participating in the bounty program Hargrove didn’t get the big reward of a ‘cart-off.’ But he would have still been owed some money for the hit.

Joining Hargrove at the meeting was Will Smith, Scott Fujita and Jonathan Vilma. The NFL is standing by their suspension decisions. But don’t worry Vilma still has his defamation suit against Goodell to get even.

-M

 

 

Roger Goodell is Still Right

4 Jun

It was announced Monday that commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL were in the right when they suspended players for involvement in the New Orleans Saints bounty program. The NFL Players Association had challenged the NFL authority to suspend players for their involvement. Of course the Players Association is going to appeal the decision by the arbitrator. And this doesn’t stop Saints line backer Jonathan Vilma from suing Goodell for defamation in a U.S. District Court in New Orleans. Vilma has a lot of time on his hands because he was given a year-long suspension by Goodell.

Now Vilma’s attorney is saying that the so-called ledger shows no indications of a bounty on certain players. So basically they are saying that although there was a list with names, those don’t indicate a bounty. There argument is that these players just really wanted to keep track of who they were hitting in games and put money on it but that’s not a bounty program. Can you say stretching?

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Bounty Ledger: We All Saw This Coming

1 Jun

Yahoo Sports just reported that two sources close to the NFL evidence in the Bountygate say there is written ledger of who got paid what for the supposed illegal hits on a weekly basis. So I guess Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma can go ahead and drop that defamation lawsuit against NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. I would really like to see this ledger. Apparently it was split into categories like “cart offs,” “whacks,” and “mental errors.” Who saved this ledger? Maybe it was someone who was really proud of their success in the bounty program. I imagine they had it on their fridge next to their kids art. I mean if you were stupid enough to participate in the program than you must be stupid enough not to destroy the key evidence.

All the players were encourage to put earnings from their bounty success to increase the odds. So basically this ledger proves that everyone knew what was going on cough cough Drew Brees. In a letter released to his fans Brees says, ” I did not participate in any Bounty program, nor did I have any knowledge relating to its real existence.” As much as I want to believe Brees I think it is pretty clear the locker room is a small space so how could you not see your teammates placing beats like these? This is not good timing for Brees who is in the middle of a stalemate over his very expensive contract with the Saints. He better hope the evidence doesn’t include his name because that might make his contract negotiations that much harder.

-M

Junior Seau Dead

2 May

This is sad news the former All-Pro Linebacker, Junior Seau, was found dead Wednesday in Oceanside, CA. He died of an apparent self inflicted gunshot wound. The police are investigating to see if it was a suicide. Throughout his career he has played for the San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins, and New England Patriots. No one in Seau’s family seems to believe he was capable of committing suicide.

It is weird because back in 2010 Seau was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence. After he was released from jail he drove his car off a cliff. At the time Seau claimed he fell asleep at the wheel and it was not a suicide attempt. It is still unclear if his death was a suicide, maybe the investigation shed some light on what was really going on?

-M

Saints’ Vilma Gets a Long Vacation

2 May

We all knew the day would come when the NFL suspended players involved in the New Orleans Saint’s bounty program. It was just announced that four players have been handed suspensions. Jonathan Vilma linebacker for the Saints will be for the entire 2012 season. Everyone knew Vilma was a potential target for suspension because he was named in a memo about the investigation back in March. Apparently Vilma personally offered up $10,000 to knock out than Viking QB, Brett Favre. This whole bounty program was totally not worth it because now Vilma is going to lose $2.6 million for missing the season. Vilma can appeal his sentencing but I think we all saw how well that went for Saints coach Sean Payton.

Saints coach Payton was also banned for the entire season and lost his appeal. At least Payton will have some company now. Maybe they can take a trip together. I hear Hawaii is nice.

The only other current Saints player that was effected was defensive end Will Smith(it must suck to have his name) who will miss four games. Now a defensive end for the Green Bay Packers, Anthony Hargrove, was handed an 8 game suspension. That a major bummer for the Packers who literally just signed Hargrove back in March. Lastly Cleveland Browns’ linebacker, Scott Fujita, was suspended for three games.

-M

Could the Saints Get Any Dirtier?

23 Apr

I am really starting to believe that if any more scandals erupt from the New Orleans Saints they will be forced to change their name to the Sinners. First the Saints are caught up in bountygate a program that planned hits on opposing players for money. Now the Saints’ general manager, Mickey Loomis, is being accused of eavesdropping on opposing teams’ play calls during games. The spying allegedly took place from 2002 to 2004. The Saints weren’t very good from 2002 to 2004 so maybe this was Loomis’ way of improving them. Loomis is already being suspended for 8 games for his involvement in bountygate. The NFL just learned of this report and has yet to give any punishment.

The Saints are denying this saying that is a 1,000 percent false. I say don’t stop at 1,000 if you are going to lie deny something that strongly go for 1 million percent. If this did happen then it is kind of the NFL’s fault as well because who ever was the Game Coordinator was obviously not doing their job. Coordinators work as part of the Society of Broadcast Engineers and NFL. It is their job to make sure that frequencies are not interfering with one another during the game. If there is anything suspicious then the Coordinator reports to the NFL. We can only hope they find a Frequency Game Coordinator scandal next.

*The original report was broken by ESPN in a story called “Outside the Lines.”

-M

 

 

Who Will Inherit the Saints?

13 Apr

The New Orleans Saints are in the middle of the bountygate investigation by the NFL. Coach Sean Payton has been banned for a year with no hope of shorter sentence since his appeal was denied. For those of you unaware of bountygate it was program set-up with the Saints where players received money for intentionally inflicting harm on players of the opposing team. And yes I realize that sounds a lot like the sport of football but apparently there is a difference.

Now the Saints have decided that assistant coach Joe Vitt will take over in Payton’s absence. But even Vitt was not immune from bountygate and is banned from 6 games of the season. They haven’t decided who will replace Vitt. It is kind of like looking at will for the Saints, they just keep going down the list trying to find someone who started working there after the scandal. I suspect Payton will still have his hand in the coaching cookie jar ban or no ban. That’s why the Saints are opting to keep the coach in house.

Bountygate Continues

11 Apr

Lesson to be learned in life, if you are going to run an illegal bounty program than you should probably keep anyone who knows happy. New Orleans filmmaker and author Alan Donnes revealed that the source of leak on bounty gate came from former defensive quality control coach Mike Cerullo. Apparently Cerullo was having some trouble finding NFL work and realized that maybe he was getting less than stellar recommendations from Sean Payton and Gregg Williams. Cerullo, now at the UConn football, declined to comment. I don’t blame Cerullo for not wanting credit, Williams said some pretty intense stuff in that released speech.

Of course Cerullo is getting the last laugh with Williams being banned forever indefinitely. And Saint’s coach Payton getting banned for a year. The ban was help up not ironically by the same guy who issued it commissioner Roger Goodell. I am proud of Goodell for sticking with his original decision. Although I am still not sure if they proved any of the hits in the bounty program were actually illegal hits? Is it the motivation to hit someone that matters in football because I am pretty sure it is always money- bounty money or contract money? Regardless now the debate begins of who will be coaching the Saints. I hear Bobby Petrino is available and you can get him on the cheap.

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