Yesterday Commissioner Roger Goodell came down on the Saints with the largest punishment in league history. This included a year-long suspension of head coach Sean Payton, a 8-game suspension of GM Mickey Loomis, a 6-game suspension of assistant coach Joe Vitt, and a half-million dollar fine. On top of that there will be an indefinite suspension to defensive coordinator Gregg Williams decided after this season. There will also be player suspensions and fines to go along with that.
This was such a huge punishment that is definitely deserved. Many people have criticized Goodell for being to hard on the Saints organization, but I feel he did the right thing, maybe not even enough. His main goal in this situation is to guarantee the league that there will be no more bounties. If that's the case you need to come down super hard on the offending team. You need to make other teams see that this will not be tolerated in any way. The health and safety of players should come first.
And for anyone who thinks he did come down to hard on the Saints, I hope you all realize that they were trying to knock guys out and hurt them. They were trying to end their game, their season, and their career. These are humans with families, and this is how they make money to put on the table. I think people need to realize what is happening here, and know that you can't over-penalize a team enough for doing something like this.
