SaintsBro

73Saint -- It's a lot to explain... I apologize for the tl;dr here folks but I have been following the bounty thing since day one, so bear with me:

1 - at first Payton's suspension was originally until the "day after the Super Bowl." THEN Goodell changed it to "after the season, Payton can apply to be reinstated." That's a different thing entirely than what it was at first. (And the change in wording came after one of the incidents in #3 below.)

2 - Goodell has said that we might possibly get the picks back if he is satisfied that the team has changed its ways, rehabilitated blah blah blah. I don't have the link handy but you'll have to just trust me, he DID say it again a second time, much later after the original sentence came down. And it was in an interview with Goodell AFTER one of the following events (can't remember exactly which one).

3 - Payton "acted up" by riding around in a golf cart with Bill Freaking Parcells, grabbing headlines during the NFL owners' meeting in Florida. It drew attention away from the owner's agenda, caused a circus in the sports media, and then people started freaking out about the Rooney rule, "oh no, if the Saints hire Parcells they could violate the Rooney Rule," and basically Payton upstaged the NFL in the headlines surrounding their annual owner's meeting, blew away the 18-game season discussion that Goodell wanted, with the whole crazy Parcells rumor thing.

4 - then after his appeal died, Payton demanded "clarification" from the league on what he could and couldn't do during his suspension, in writing. He basically made them do a bunch of legal busy work, a memo, laying it all out in a document for him. Do I have to report it if I see Jimmy Graham in another line at the grocery store? Can I do college scouting on my own, can I coach college? What if it's an EX Saints player I see on the street? Does this include contact with cheerleaders? What about the kid who carries the tee -- what if I accidentally run into him? Can Benson rent an office to Payton in Benson Tower, if it's not the Saints name on the lease? That kind of thing. Just to make them do the busy work and jump through hoops. Probably 30% real clarification, 70% just yanking their chain.

5 - Payton played bongos with Jimmy Buffett, and then pictures showed up on the internet of Payton drinking alone in a bar (Lucy's) -- I don't think that was a total accident. I mean it's freaking Lucy's -- Payton knows Saints fans are gonna be there and take his picture and Tweet about it. TMZ type stuff. And people see drunk Payton cutting up at Lucy's and they kinda laugh at it, and sorta feel sorry for him too. Like he got a raw deal.

6 - Payton again "acted up" by going to a charity golf event thing in the summer, that Mark Ingram was at -- both were committed to it before Bountygate happened. And both he and Ingram made funny comments to reporters there, about how they had to arrive and leave through different doors, they couldn't be in the same room, Ingram said it was like avoiding an ex girlfriend, I had to leave sneaking through the kitchen, funny stuff like that. They were showing how silly the punishment was, that Goodell was making them do this even though they were at a CHARITY event.

But yeah, I'm interpreting it, but I kinda think Goodell really wanted (or would have been extremely happy with) all 3-4 of them including Williams getting fired from their jobs. The team "rehabilitating" or "changing their ways" really sounds like code "between the lines" for firing Payton and Loomis, to me. Because in Goodell's eyes THEY were the problem. And Goodell has had run-ins with Payton before, many times. Just my take on it.

73Saint

Well, it certainly wouldn't surprise me if Goodell had it out for Payton, and I could see Payton's arrogance rubbing Rodge the wrong way. So, who knows.

I just think that it has to be common knowledge that Payton and Loomis are gods in NOLA, and Benson firing them over this would set the franchise back even further than his punishment already has. So, under that theory, hard to imagine Benson doing so.

But, what do I know? lol.