From Fox Sports.
The NFL disciplined multiple members of the Saints organization for their participation or connection with the bounty system that was run by former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams from 2009-11. Williams was suspended indefinitely. Saints head coach Sean Payton was suspended for the entire 2012 season. General manager Mickey Loomis is suspended for the first eight games and linebackers/assistant head coach Joe Vitt for the first six.
New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees said he was “speechless” about the NFL’s ruling and wants to know the reasoning behind it. “I am speechless,” Brees tweeted. “Sean Payton is a great man, coach, and mentor. The best there is. I need to hear an explanation for this punishment.”
I’m an old football coach and appreciate toughness, clean play, and hard blocking and tackling as much as the next person. Football is a violent game and not for everyone. But I absolutely support the NFL in handing down these penalties because what New Orleans (and apparently other clubs) allowed and encouraged is antithetical to the game and good sportsmanship. There is simply no room for this kind of behavior at any level of football. Period.
That is why I find Drew Brees’ comments so stunning. Given the bounties his teammates put on other men playing his position–all with the approval, tacit or otherwise, of the coaching staff–he of all people ought to get why the NFL did what it did. But Mr. Brees gives every indication of not getting it and that leaves me speechless. Sean Payton may be a great man, coach, and mentor. But not in this case. In my book, any coach who allows a bounty system to exist on his team–and then lies about it because he surely knows it was wrong–does not practice greatness in any shape or form (again, at least in this instance) except to allow and tacitly encourage thuggery.
To the contrary, what Coach Payton allowed is a sad manifestation of the win-at-all-costs mentality and it shows a horrific disregard for the safety and welfare of other human beings. There are some sick individuals who likely admire these traits. But I don’t, and I wouldn’t want men with that mentality mentoring anyone I know because it would surely find a way to infect the one being mentored.
I hope this sends a much-needed wake-up call to the owners, coaches, and players in the NFL and elsewhere. If you want to kill a game, just allow this kind of nonsense to continue.
I also hope Coach Payton truly learns a lesson here and repents of this wickedness. If Drew Brees is correct in his assessment of his coach, then I have reason to hope that that might just happen. And if Coach Payton does truly change his ways, I would be the first to support his return to coaching because everyone deserves at least a second chance.
In the meantime, well done Commissioner Goodell.