Goody's Opinion: Saints Bounty

After a long investigation the NFL has found that former New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams had a bounty for his players to take out opposing players during games for a small cash prize. As I have seen and heard many of your thoughts on the matter and I thought I would share my opinions as well.

First off I heard many people compare this to the Patriots "Spygate" saying that this is much worse, and I am not so sure to jump on that ship. I think it varies on how you look at it. From a moral stand point the Saint's Bounty is much worse as hitting guys to hurt them, it's kind of like breaking the gentleman's agreement between the players. Spygate I still feel is a little worse as far as a cheating to gain an advantage standpoint.

Every time I hear an interview with the likes of Ray Lewis or other defensive greats it seems like they will always say one thing, "when I go out there I intend to knock a guy out of the game when I hit him" So I feel as long as they are paying the bounties on hits that are legal and knocking them out of the game is not as bad as if they were telling them to take them out at any cost (ex: Charles Martins hit on Jim McMahon) Some teams need to have a badge of honor type incentive to motivate them into tackling better, see 2011 Green Bay Packers defense!, and that's all this bounty could have been. Most of the hits that the Saint's had during the time in question were legal hits. To me this is the same as college teams like the Ohio Buckeyes putting stickers on their helmet for making a great play, that the bounty was more for incentive to play and tackle better rather than actually taking an opponent out of the game.

I know even besides my point I do know that NFL coaches who have a bounty incentive for it's players is still illegal and that the Saint's should be punished, along the lines of what the Patriots got back in 2007 with Spygate. What really drives me crazy is people calling for everyones head ,like Sean Peyton, to be fired. I know that they knew about it, but the other reason why it is such a big deal to the NFL is because they have to cover their ass. With all the players filing injury lawsuits they have to make an example out of the Saint's to prevent any other lawsuits against them for this being a violent game. (no duh right?)