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Roger Goodell had no other choice.
Beset by a rising tide of concussion claims and concerns about player safety, the NFL commissioner’s only way out was to throw the book at the Saints and disgraced former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams yesterday for their role in BountyGate.
New Orleans coach Sean Payton was suspended for an entire year (forfeiting his reported $7.5 million salary in the process), while general manager Mickey Loomis was suspended eight games and assistant head coach Joe Vitt six games. The Saints were docked $500,000 and second-round draft picks in 2012 and 2013.
Williams got the harshest punishment of all, an indefinite suspension that begins immediately — costing him his new job as defensive coordinator of the Rams — and won’t be revisited by Goodell until after the upcoming season.
Breathtaking.
Not only were they far the most draconian penalties the NFL has ever meted out, but Goodell is not finished. He also intends to punish ex-Jets linebacker Jonathan Vilma and other Saints defensive players involved in the heinous cash-for-injuries scheme, announcing yesterday afternoon he is consulting with NFL Players Association chief DeMaurice Smith on what the union thinks are acceptable recriminations.
“Let me be clear: There is no place in the NFL for deliberately seeking to injure another player, let alone offering a reward for doing so,” Goodell said, referring to the highly organized bounty system by the Saints that dated to Williams’ 2009 arrival. “Programs of this kind have no place in our game, and we are determined that bounties will no longer be a part of the NFL.”
The fallout was immediate. The Saints released a statement from owner Tom Benson apologizing for the scandal, but Payton — a former Giants offensive coordinator — and quarterback Drew Brees were both dismayed by the severity of the head coach’s penalty.
With Payton sidelined for an entire calendar year and Vitt out the first eight games, former Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is now in line to take over as interim head coach after recently joining the Saints as Williams’ replacement.
Payton told Fox Sports: “I’m not OK [with the punishment],” while Brees took to Twitter to indicate Goodell went too far.
“I am speechless,” wrote Brees, who has yet to sign his franchise-player tag from the Saints. “Sean Payton is a great man, coach, and mentor. The best there is. I need to hear an explanation for this punishment.”
Williams, whose NFL coaching career is now in jeopardy, took a vastly different tact by begging for Goodell’s mercy with a statement apologizing “wholeheartedly” to the league.
The NFL revealed yesterday Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Panthers quarterback Cam Newton were also targeted for injury after earlier identifying Brett Favre and Kurt Warner.
Goodell made his reputation as a strict disciplinarian long before this, so the harshness of the penalties was not entirely out of left field. But the Saints also were victims of bad timing with the league under siege from former players and even Congress over the issues of concussion-related brain damage and player safety in general.
Williams did not help matters by lying to Goodell and league investigators after the bounty charges were initially raised in 2010, and Loomis sealed his fate by promising Benson the bounty program would cease but then allowing it to continue.
Williams and the Saints clearly made their bed. Yesterday, Goodell set fire to it.