The Saints Deserve to be Crucified

Austen's Goal Line Stand (Easter Edition):

Saints' head coach Sean Payton will have plenty of time to
hang out with the likes of Taylor Swift now that he has
officially been banned for the entire 2012 NFL season.

Shame on Sean Payton.
Shame on Mickey Loomis.
Shame on Drew Brees.
And Gregg Williams should never be allowed back in the NFL.

It is all too fitting that the Saints get "crucified" by the NFL one day after Easter Sunday. I hope everyone in New Orleans had a good weekend because it is going to be a long year for Saints' fans.

I do not take the far reaching effects of the Saints' punishments lightly because I have had a great deal of respect for all of these guys and the job they did turning around what seemed to be a cursed franchise. I, like the majority of the country, was rooting for the Saints in their run to their lone Super Bowl victory. All four of these guys did an amazing job turning this team around from a perennial loser to the best team in football. They gave an entire community that needed a ray of hope something to root for and be proud of.

All that being said, this "bounty scandal" has tarnished all of that and all four of these guys are at least guilty of misconduct of the highest degree. I do not care what Payton, Loomis, and Brees say, they all knew this was going on and they decided to do nothing about it. This type of behavior cannot happen on such a consistent basis without the leaders of this team knowing about it.

Many people forget that Payton gave up half a million dollars of his own salary just to get Williams to come aboard and fix one of the worst defenses in the league. That first season with the Saints, Williams' defense lead the league in turnovers and the Saints won the Super Bowl. The move looked like a stroke of genius at the time, but now only further proves Payton's guilt.

Payton and Williams are close and there is no way that Payton has never heard one of Williams crazed speeches similar to the one that was leaked during the Saints' playoff game against the 49ers last season. And if he has never heard one of them, he is doing a terrible job as a head coach anyway because it is his responsibility to have control of his team, especially his fellow coaches.

The Saints organization was warned at least a year ago that they were being investigated by the league, yet Williams' speech just a few months ago shows that the team made no attempt to correct their wrong doings. That falls heavily on Payton and Loomis.

Loomis is the team's General Manager, meaning he is responsible for managing the actions of every last person associated with the Saints' organization, especially when it comes to conduct on the field. To say that Loomis should get a pass because GMs are somewhat removed from the actual team shows that people do not really understand the General Manager position.

Loomis hired Payton, Williams, and all of the players that were fired up about getting some extra cash for trying to injure their peers. Like I said earlier, Loomis and the rest of the team were warned that this type of punishment was coming, but Loomis clearly believed that the league would not come down so hard on the darlings of the NFL.

The Saints had become such a feel good story that Loomis probably thought his team was untouchable. Roger Goodell showed that no team is above the integrity of the game and he should receive a lot of praise for not giving any preferential treatment to a team that has brought a lot of positive press to the NFL.

Drew Brees has a lot more than his contract issues to be
worried about, as he has a lot of explaining to do in
order to clear his name in the bounty scandal.

As a huge fan of Drew Brees, it is hard for me to say this, but he is far from blameless in this scandal. Brees is the unquestioned leader of this team, and I do mean this team and not just the offense. Every player on the Saints looks to Brees for leadership and he has failed his team by allowing this type of behavior to persist in his locker room. What makes matters worse is that he is the Saints' representative in the NFL Players' Association (NFLPA). This means that he is voting on new rules that are supposed to be stopping this exact type of behavior in the NFL. If he cannot even stop this from happening in his own locker room, how can his fellow representatives trust him to help stop it from happening throughout the entire sport?

I will always respect Brees because he has been one of the most exciting players in the NFL to watch and he has done a lot of great charity work in his time, but he needs to be more honest with the media about what exactly he knew and did not know before he can really clear his name from this. It is hard for me to think that he would stand idly by while this type of behavior surrounded him, but it is even more difficult for me to envision a scenario in which he could have never heard Williams speaking like this to Brees' defensive teammates.

Everyone in the NFL loves a big hit (except maybe
quarterbacks like Kurt Warner), but no one should allow
hits with malicious intent to injure to persist in the NFL.

Which finally brings me to Gregg Williams. Before this scandal, I thought of him as one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL, to the point of him even deserving to be a head coach. I loved how aggressive his defenses were with their numerous blitz schemes and how opportunistic his players were, constantly coming up with big turnovers in crucial situations (like the Brett Favre interception that help send them to the Super Bowl). They were hard hitting and always fun to watch.

I have no problem with hard hitting defenses. Defensive players are expected to hit the man with the ball as hard as humanly possible. That's their job. I also have no problem with players getting paid for big hits or critical sacks, despite the fact that this is technically illegal. What I have a problem with, and what everyone should have a problem with, is when a coach goes out of his way to encourage his players to attack their opponents' weakened body parts in order to take them out of the game. There is no place for this is an already violent game and Williams' actions are nothing short of despicable.

With all of the new initiatives in order to beef up injury awareness and player safety, Williams' words are particularly shocking. The league has finally gotten around to doing their best to limit the amount of concussions players suffer on the field because of the serious and often life threatening effects of such hits. Everyone who knows anything about the NFL has heard about old players' suffering from life altering brain illnesses due to constant concussions suffered during their time in football.

Williams was well aware of these issues, but did not care about the players' health and only cared about winning games. His clear and constant neglect for the well being of the players shows that he does not deserve redemption and should be cast out of the NFL. Even if just one of Williams' players caused an injury that could have been avoided, especially if it was a concussion, a life long ban is the least the league can do to punish Williams. Had Williams paid a man to assault a person in a similar fashion off the field, he would not just be unemployed, he would be in jail.

What shocks me even more than Williams' actions is that his players were so responsive and enthusiastic about injuring their peers. How could these players be so willing to inflict such pain and suffering upon players who are no different than them? Don't they know that they will often injure themselves in an attempt to injure their rivals? Even if they do not care about their opponent at all, they are putting themselves at higher risk of an injury that could end their career and have a serious effect on the rest of their life.

The NFL definitely has a lot of work left to do in order to get their coaches and players on the right track when it comes to player safety, but holding strong with their punishments of the Saints at least sends a clear message to everyone that this type of behavior ends now or else you will not be working in the NFL much longer.