Stealthman

Given the fact that Goddell and the NFL had the Saints "guilty until proven innocent," I thought this thread would be fair play.

Assuming the Saints are fully exonerated (which won't happen in the real world, but I digress)... how does the NFL make it up to the Saints for:

1. Coach Payton's lost wages
2. Players' good names damaged
3. Loomis' good name and stature damaged
4. Saints' lost draft pick in '12
5. Saints' fan base deprived of fair and equitable coverage by sports media

OK... #5 won't happen, and #'s 2 & 3 are iffy, at best.

What is the remedy if/when we come to that bridge of restoration for the Saints' organization?

I'd like to see your comments.

Oh, one last thing...

Watch this video. It has absolutely HARSH evidence that the NFL is out to lunch, and does everything to substantiate the Saints' (and Vilma's) claim that the team did nothing wrong. After watching this you will probably say: "WOW!"

Link:

Halo

This video highlights the PURE hypocrisy of the Roger Goodell scandal.
The NFL is notorious for never apologizing when they were wrong.
They were wrong for hiding their own studies on long term affects from concussions and they still have not justified nor produced conclusions from those studies from years ago.

Those two guys will always be associated with the "Bountygate" program. If it wasn't for Vilma taking action there would be no retribution for anyone accused in this NFL scandal. For 2 and 3, the only way for these 2 guys to recover is to fight. Loomis can only hope to keep winning in New Orleans as that may be his only way to get another job in the NFL as I'm sure teams have "blacklisted" him.

#5 - Agreed, won't happen, but the fans will recover.

#4 - After suspending players and coaches, I no idea how the NFL justified taking draft picks away in the first place. If anything, to parallel punishment with the Pats, which is a hypocrisy in itself as no Pat coach or player was suspended for CHEATING and getting caught red handed.

The NFL is notorious for handing over draft picks to teams screwed on deals in the past and I'm sure in upcoming drafts they'll hand us a few.

#1 - Coach Payton is literally in a league of his own. The coaches union is largely UN-developed and merely an offshoot of the NFLPA. If Roger Goodell and the NFL are as generous as they proclaimed in the hearing when they said they usually reduce suspension during the season, then that means Sean Payton will return.

I don't believe the NFL, therefore Coach Payton will probably not return this season.

.... and again, the Saints, coaches & players, have taken it on the CHIN in this NFL witch hunt. But no one mentions Gregg Williams for some reason.

Why aren't reports on Williams doorstep for an interview?
Why isn't the commissioner placing any blame on Williams and shoving it all on non-expelled Coaches & Players?

I too digress.

11toby

NFL fans are regularly pooped on. NFL expects us to keep paying them and we do. kind of how the cell phone companies work. the more torture, the more we pay. agree that coach payton won't make his money back.

The entirer situation is over blown and no necessary.

Rugby Saint II

Loomis can only hope to keep winning in New Orleans as that may be his only way to get another job in the NFL as I'm sure teams have "blacklisted" him.


I seriously doubt that any team would black list the GM of the decade.

Halo

BUMP! Come on everybody, say something and live a little while you're at work!

I'll cover for you with your boss.....

NOLA54

This makes it even clearer that NFL execs are trying everything they can to keep the Saints from playing in this seasons super bowl in New Orleans.

Utah_Saint

Goodell's position has been ridiculous.

Vilma was suspended an entire season for putting $10,000 on the table for Brett Favre's head. Sounds reasonable, even lenient. But now that there is no evidence of that ever happening, Goodell has backed off his claims but Vilma is still suspended an entire year. How does that happen? If he didn't put the money on a specific players head what DID he do to justify such a harsh punishment? What ever it was, it just happened to be worth the same suspension? C'mon man, seems pretty hard to believe.

Same thing for Hargrove. He got 8 games because he could be heard saying "give me my money" after a hit on Farve. When it turns out that he didn't say it or even hit Farve, what did he do to justify half a season? Why hasn't the punishment changed? Why haven't they said what he's being punished for now?

Goodells stance is that even though his facts are admittedly wrong, his punishments are correct nonetheless. And neither the fans, nor players need to know why. It's pure arrogance.

SaintsBro

I see a few different things going on right now, and all of it is behind the scenes. The logical thing to have happen, is to have the ADULTS IN THE ROOM (the owners) step up and settle this thing behind closed doors before it causes real damage in public and makes EVERYBODY look bad. Utah Saint is right; Goodell is hanging on to defending punishments that no longer make sense, or suit the situation in people's minds as to what really happened.

I believe there has been a quiet PR campaign going on behind the scenes, for some time now, by the Saints, to "humanize" Sean Payton. You had Drew speaking so warmly about him in interviews, describing him as a friend and a man, not just as a coach; and Payton's brief appearance at the Hall Of Fame game, with his son along with him in a Cortez Kennedy Seahawks jersey -- which was a very REAL genuine father-and-son moment, but also not a complete accident either.

This is an effort to get public sentiment behind the idea of reducing Payton's suspension -- that what Payton actually did wasn't all so bad, to warrant a whole year. To popularize the growing perception that he got a raw deal.

And it's also so that people will remember that Sean Payton is HUMAN, not a hideous abstraction of all that is evil, bad, and menacing about football, during his imposed silence and suspension -- when Goodell has him "Spending The Night In The Box" and he can't talk or defend himself or do anything.

I believe the Saints camp are quietly trying to make the point, that putting Sean Payton into a black hole of silence and making him invisible or nonexistent for an entire year, like Goodell wants to, is going to do absolutely nothing, to rehabilitate Sean Payton as a person. And that maybe, he doesn't even really need all that much rehabilitating to begin with. This is where Goodell totally doesn't get it.

We can all agree that Gregg Williams needs to go away for a while by himself, and think. Any reasonable person can see that. He shouldn't be a part of anything, right now. Go to your room, and think about what you did -- no dessert and no TV, no video games, Gregg. No one is defending his character or calling him a family man right now. Sean Payton, kind of the opposite. That these two should be punished the same, equally, for doing vastly different things -- it just doesn't add up.

Seer1

I'm pretty sure I'm looking at the five reasons that pompous mother and his boot licking minions will never back down.

Halo, my Atlanta born boss happened to see this, expecting some kind of save pretty quickly....

AlaskaSaints

"IF THE GLOVE DON'T FIT, YOU MUST ACQUIT!"

LOL

Alaska