Was it worth it?
Was winning worth it?
That's what you wonder now that Roger Goodell has announced the punishments for the New Orleans Saints' bounty program.
General manager Mickey Loomis: Suspended eight games.
Head coach Sean Payton: Suspended one year.
Former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams (now with St. Louis): Suspended indefinitely.
Linebackers/assistant head coach Joe Vitt: Suspended six games and fined $100,000.
Player discipline is forthcoming. (Jonathan Vilma might want to make alternate plans for September and October.)
The shock is immeasurable.
Nobody around the NFL expects any head coach to be suspended for a year, or an assistant to be suspended indefinitely, but the evidence against the Saints was persuasive and heavy.
Not only did all involved admit that the bounty program existed, they also "falsely denied" it. The NFL's release provided many details of the several times Williams, Payton and Vitt lied or misled the league. The report has specific, credible details of how Payton and the Saints tried to avoid being honest.
A bounty program with rewards and incentives to injure other players goes against every element of reasonable competition. Intent to injure is wrong, and Goodell let that be known.
The NFL was light on James Harrison, whose kill shot on Browns quarterback Colt McCoy resulted in a mere one-game suspension.
With the Saints, the league got it right.
Goodell was justified, though his decisions do raise some questions:
• Will the legal teams now step in?
Payton and Williams both have agents and attorneys who are wise and capable. It will be interesting to see if they act to do something to fight the suspensions. For a coach to miss an entire year is shattering to the man and his team.
• What does this mean for Payton's future with the Saints?
Owner Tom Benson could decide the proverbial "fresh start" is more appropriate, or Payton's past record could carry the day.
• Why do people try cover-ups?
The Saints flat out lied about the program they administered. They lied blatantly and knowingly. Coaches and GMS as a group will rant and rave about a missed assignment or a player being three minutes late for a meeting, yet in this case when they are confronted with specific evidence of wrongdoing, they lie. Go figure.
• Why do administrators of football teams feel like they can act in a way they would never allow their children to act?
Rhetorical question.
• Will Gregg Williams coach again in the NFL?
He shouldn't. Any coach who encourages a willing intent to injure should be banned. If Goodell puts indefinite at one year, it's too short.
Was it worth it?
The Saints won a Super Bowl in one of the seasons they had these bounties. They did it, essentially, by flaunting their disregard for the spirit of competition and the rules of the league.
That feel-good story everyone talked about with New Orleans and Katrina and the Saints saving the city -- now it's overshadowed by blatant and intentional cheap shots that were meant to injure an opposing player.
It's slimy. Spare the statements about football being a physical game. It is. And because it is, there's no place to make it dangerous by having a team go all-in on rewarding its players for intentional intent to injure. That's sickening.
And now the Saints players' reputations and the reputations of their coach and assistant coach are in tatters.
The Saints get to look in the mirror and ask themselves: Was our integrity worth a win?
