Some 'Bountygate' Saints Still Fighting Mad: Railroaded By NFL?

CBS Sports:

One Saints player on the phone was angry.

"Everyone in the bounty case is being railroaded," he said, "I can't believe this is happening."

Another sounded tired but determined. "Our franchise has become a cautionary tale," he said, "and we've done nothing wrong."

Read the whole story at CBS Sports

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Comments

[coryellorquit]

12:19 PM on 06/22/2012

bountygate is plain crap --- show us ON THE FIELD -- where any of this so called bounty was displayed - can't, because even if it was talked about --- it never became a reality. NO ONE was carted off...... NO ONE was even injured during the entire time this was SUPPOSED to have been in effect. WHERE'S THE BEEF??

[Celebrindan]

11:32 AM on 05/22/2012

Watch the 1986 Monday Night Football game between the Chicago Bears and the Greenbay Packers, in which Charles Martin, a full two seconds after the ball is released, picks up Jim McMahon from behind, pinioning his arms, and body-slams him, full weight down on his previously injured shoulder, then see the wrist-slap they handed Martin, and see the team pay the fine, and try and convince anyone that this hasn't been part and parcel of this league for decades.

This is a public relations sham.

National level sports commissioners should be presidential appointments, not corporate stooges.

[Bloviator88]

11:29 AM on 05/22/2012

Football by itself is boring. Why not give the players knives, clubs, and lose the silly padding? After all, if there's one thing the 1% have taught us, it's that mortals are disposable.

[Bienville]

11:06 AM on 05/22/2012

FREE PAYTON!

[Celebrindan]

11:24 AM on 05/22/2012

Payton's Place is now the High Ground, and you gotta go through the Vonn Doom Defense to get there.

So, suck lemons. :D

[Hugatreetoday]

10:48 AM on 05/22/2012

Well fellas if you participated in any form of bounty "hunting" opposing players, then you have only yourselves to blame. If someone waves a few extra thousand dollars temptation under your nose and you acquiesce, what does that say about your scruples/sportsmanship to begin with?

[jfair80]

10:33 AM on 05/22/2012

I hope their corrupt cheating organization never wins another ballgame.

[Harvo]

10:28 AM on 05/22/2012

The NFL, the most over-hyped game in history.

[deaddo]

10:16 AM on 05/22/2012

the people who think that football is not about injuring or taking out the opposing player, need to acknowledge that they've never played the game on any level, not even backyard. It's about as illegal assault as charging a boxer for punching too hard.If you've ever received a scouting report in your life, you wouldn't know because that is precisely what it is, a hit list. what makes it fair is that everyone who enters the field knows that, EVERYONE, and EVERYONE participates.The NFL is headed to bitchball.

[meanjoker]

10:05 AM on 05/22/2012

He picked one team of any number of teams to use a legal tool.
Yep, railroaded, judge jury and executioner Goodell.
He's hiding things.

[Pod-gers]

09:44 AM on 05/22/2012

I personally believe the game should be about taking a player out of the current play, not out of the game, nor out of his career. Dirty hits, legal or not, ruin the experience, it's not fun to watch a talented player be done in. Let's have some rule enforcement, and let's get on with the game.

[deaddo]

10:03 AM on 05/22/2012

the game you speak of is flag football

[SaveElmer]

08:44 AM on 05/22/2012

Football players are the biggest bunch of whiny privileged crybabies in sports...there is nothing, and I mean nothing they can do that will get them kicked out of the NFL, up to and including manslaughter. National Felon League is becoming less a joke and more a reality.

On top of that, with the increasing number of players suffering from long term debilitating neurological problems, football is going to end up like boxing...which during the 70s was one of the biggest sports draws around. Now it is a marginally popular, largely corrupt sport that only maintains a niche audience. The first time we someone of the stature of Tom Brady, or Peyton Manning on TV, shaking uncontrollably, barely able to speak, and unable to remember something long enough to carry on anything more than a brief conversation will be when we can mark the beginning of its demise. To avoid that the NFL will have to make even more radical changes, or it will end up in 30 years where boxing is now...

IN the

[deaddo]

10:04 AM on 05/22/2012

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnnnn,whimp

[rothomaha]

07:48 AM on 05/22/2012

This is absurd! These guys play a "game" in which maximum hurt is to be applied to the opposing player at all times as a basic rule, they are paid millions to do it, and they are whining and sniveling when held to account for going over the edge? If they "love" the "game" so much, let them "play" it for free or minimum wage. In a single year some of these dopes earn more than a neurosurgeon earns in a professional lifetime!

[deaddo]

10:05 AM on 05/22/2012

so does private equity

[rothomaha]

10:28 AM on 05/22/2012

Agreed - they are also dopes! Their mouths are just a bit more skilled and unobstructed by mouthpieces. What's behind the mouth is the same vaccuum in both cases! Peace.

[Jayjaybe]

02:58 AM on 05/22/2012

Those players still think that professional football is a sport? Only a business can support the salaries that they're getting. The NFL can't allow that tail to wag the dog.

[huff reader]

07:31 AM on 05/22/2012

The players are getting screwed.

The 'bounty-hunting' is assault, and should be prosecuted.

However, note the position these players were in. They could go along with the coaches, or lose their jobs. Sure a few might get traded, but bucking the boss, whistle-blowing, etc., is generally not healthy for your career. The general rule of thumb is that whistle-blowers get shafted, long-term. So, most people simply shut up and go along.

The coaches who perpetrated this should be in jail.

Finally, beside the fact that this practice amounts to assault or aggravated assault, it destroys the 'sport'. OK, business. Think about it.

If bounty-hunting is OK, then every single team should adopt a strategy of permanently injuring the stars on every other team. Every game.

Now, what would THAT do to the game? Every Super Bowl would be played by recently-activated third-rate players, because all the good ones would have been eliminated.

If that's OK, NFL football should adopt a new name: "The Hunger Games"

[Jayjaybe]

02:30 PM on 05/23/2012

This is all about the players, from all directions. They buy into their trash talking and then expect no blowback. They want to be gladiators but not to be treated like a commodity. They are weak on concept. They give lip service to pro sports as a business but then they disregard their role in the business. This "business" is greater than the sum of its parts. Modern business can be more vicious than any players can handle. The bottom line is that "bottom line".

[OneTop]

02:27 AM on 05/22/2012

The NFL are idiots, the people who run the league, not the players.

They should have picked one Saiint as an example and left it at that. They are only concerned about their public perception and brand.

It's completely ridiculous to drag all the others into this, when the league, agents, other players et al, all knew this was run of the mill stuff.

For the love of Gawd, legal player contracts have all manner of incentives as to sacks, tackles and ingrown toenails. Locker rooms and players themselves, have always ponied up money for the first big hit on player X.

Or has something changed in the last 100 years?

[huff reader]

07:32 AM on 05/22/2012

There is a big difference between hard tackles, big hits, and attacking people with the intent to injure.

One is competitive sport, the latter is assault.

[deaddo]

10:07 AM on 05/22/2012

bs you could have never played organized football in your life

[jfair80]

10:35 AM on 05/22/2012

There were rules in place and they were broken... Period. The fact that these cheaters won as many games as they did is a detriment to the game of Football. Same goes for the Patriots too.

[Odin707]

02:10 AM on 05/22/2012

Football players being mean (big frowny face). Wish the media would focus on the fact that the Saints defense at the time wasn't the snarling beast on the field they'd make you believe. Ridiculous news filler, that's all this is.