WhoDat!656

GW in his apology never said that he or the Saints ran a bounty program; he said they ran a 'pay for performance' program.

“I want to express my sincere regret and apology to the NFL, Mr. Benson, and the New Orleans Saints fans for my participation in the ‘pay for performance’ program while I was with the Saints,” Williams said. “It was a terrible mistake, and we knew it was wrong while we were doing it. Instead of getting caught up in it, I should have stopped it. I take full responsibility for my role. I am truly sorry. I have learned a hard lesson and I guarantee that I will never participate in or allow this kind of activity to happen again.”

Unless the league has a sworn affadavit from a Saints player/coach saying that he witnessed money being paid for injuring a player, or audio or visual proof,their case may be a house of cards.

"A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."

Halo

I think "pay for performance" is legalese for "Bounty."
1 good scandal or sudden death/injury and Bountygate will be forgotten.

I agree that the NFL has a wishy-washy case at best.

CharityMike

Yeah..they can have fun trying to prove "Intent" on any play!

SmashMouth

Great point! I want an apology from Goodell now! ... Plus draft picks for the Saints!

saintfan

The NFL isn't going to relent. This isn't about anything the Saints did. This IS about the coming court cases the NFL is going to have to defend itself against because ex players are lining up to sue for injuries they 'suffered' while playing in the league.

alexonfyre

In the court of the NFL the only evidence you need is "Goodell doesn't like you"

The Dude

They will most likely hit us with penalties for several smaller issues instead of one. Salary cap violation is one.

WhoDat!656

Then any team that paid players for interceptions, fumble recoveries,sacks etc should get punished same as the Saints

Brandon428

That is what I have been saying all along. Its all hearsay and conjecture at best. There is no absolute evidence nor confession that proves their was ever a system in place that PAID FOR INJURIES,only a pay for performance (interceptions,sacks,big stops,etc.). The Saints organization knows whats going on,its a disgruntled ex-employee who’s trying to stir up trouble and the stupid media is eating it up and adding fuel to the fire because its a good BS story to get people to watch their shows or read their articles. I have lost a lot of respect for TMZSPN and other people around the league for being so quick to judge without any real evidence and for being a bunch of gullible lackeys. Its only common sense,look at the past few years while we we’re under Greg William’s regime,how many K.O. and cart off hits did we make? I honestly can’t even remember any! I know we made a lot of big hits but thats how you create fumbles and turnovers and break up big receptions! Also if its $1,500 "bounty" for a K.O. and $10,000+ fine for making such a hit what the hell is the point?!? I promise you this case would never hold up in court! The reason why the NFL has to pursue this is because the media has blown it up and now some one has to pay to appease all the idiots who believe everything they hear on TMZSPN. This has nothing to do with “player saftey” but has everything to do with protecting the consensus view of the NFL therefore protecting revenue and their defense against lawsuits from ex-NFL players suing the league because of a lack of medical care after retirement. Surprising though it may be but this has nothing to do with “player safety”,its all about the almighty dollar.

SloMotion

Agree the NFL is moving in the 'shot self in foot' direction on this. I think their main concern was the fact "non-contractual bonus payments" were going on, and in an effort to bring the issue to the forefront, the NFL decided to 'sensationalize' the issue with the whole 'bounty' theme in order to get the general public behind them.

But like saintfan pointed out, the NFL will be relentless. It's a dog & pony show and they'll keep throwing stuff at the Saints until something sticks.