WhoDat!656

• 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."

Euphoria

and nothing happens to the refs when they blow a call that costs a team a win. Its still integrity of the game.

saintsfan1976

Refs don't hit players Euph. They just screw em.

TheKillerBs

saintfan

It's court posturing. Whatever other crap this fool spews is irrelevant and unimportant. His ass is in a sling and he knows it. I swear I'd like to kick his ass so bad I can't stand it.

|Mitch|

I'm still having a hard time seeing how lying equates to $1,000,000 in fines plus Paytons 1 year long suspension

saintfan

Sean is losing nearly EIGHT million. Crap on a stick...

|Mitch|

Touche'

I didn't factor Seans salary loss as fines...

onebyone

I am upset with our cover-up too, as it was such an obvious failure. We should have our business on lock better than this.

Joking aside, I am sick to death of Goodell and want him to go away. Dictators are less drunk on their own power than this guy.