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• So it was the cover-up as much as the crime that helped convince Goodell to bring the hammer down so hard on the New Orleans Saints, and not just the fact that they organized and executed a bounty program to begin with. The commish admitted as much here Monday evening, saying his harsh set of penalties was at least in part due to the Saints continuing to lie about the bounty program even as recently as earlier this month.

"It's a violation of a very serious rule,'' Goodell said. "We have made player health and safety very clear as a priority. I have addressed it with owners, head coaches, general managers and all of our personnel several times a year. When this first was raised over two years ago, there were denials. They frankly were not forthright with what was happening. And that continued, and it continued even through our investigation into the past several weeks. So it's a serious violation of our policy. It's something that has zero tolerance in the NFL. It's not acceptable to hide the issues, continue to violate the NFL policy, put our players at risk. That's going to be dealt with very harshly.''


Read more: Roger Goodell punishes Sean Payton,*Saints for cover-up as much as bounty program - Don Banks - SI.com

Roger Goodell punishes Sean Payton,*Saints for cover-up as much as bounty program - Don Banks - SI.com

"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."