Sean Peyton Suspended One Year; Gregg Williams Out Indefinitely from NFL

[Bond]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=ApigZwkyi9e7W0ZVuyXj7u45nYcB?slug=ms-silver_sean_payton_saints_bounty_roger_goodell_032112

Holy shit.

[KillerGremlin]

Not surprising at all. This has been predicted for a while now.

The other prediction was that if Sean Payton got a one years suspension, it would basically be obligated for New Orleans to fire him. We'll see.

[KillerGremlin]

Also, Tebow to the Jets. Bahahahahahaha.

This is a high drama offseason. It's awesome.

[Bond]

Do you think Tebow to the Jets to potentially run the wildcat or to replace Mark Sanchez?

[Professor S]

But hey, cheating is perfectly acceptable as long as you win the Superbowl...

[KillerGremlin]

But hey, cheating is perfectly acceptable as long as you win the Superbowl...

Are you referring to Camera-gate? I want to say that the Patriots weren't the only team recording practices...they just got caught. They also shut up and took their discipline.

Sean Payton made a press release saying he was surprised. Drew Brees was shocked. I mean really? This had to happen, and I don't think the penalties are surprising at all. Goodell has focused on player safety for a long time now. This is a "player safety" league, blah blah. The bounties completely undermine player safety, and while I'm fairly certain that there were bounties all across the NFL...it's still the type of thing that Goodell needs to come down hard on with his history of policing hard hits. This was clearly a message...and a harsh one. I can't wait for the juicy gossip when we find out how long the players are going to be suspended for.

It sucks too because I like Sean Payton. It's no fun when a coach you really like turns out to be a scumbag.

Do you think Tebow to the Jets to potentially run the wildcat or to replace Mark Sanchez?

Both. You couldn't ask for a higher-drama team, I think. We are going to see a repeat of last year. Sanchez sucks, and people in New York are going to be cheering "Tebow, Tebow, Tebow!" It's going to create all sorts of hilarious drama.

I wonder how Tebow must be feeling too. John Elway was all like, "oh yeah, Tebow is our guy." Remember after the playoffs Elway basically fellated Tebow? The reality is Tebow sucks. That playoff game against New England was hilariously embarrassing. I'm pretty sure Orton and Sanchez are both better quarterbacks. But I guess we will see. I ate several shoes last year, so maybe Tebow will actually develop this year.

[Bond]

I think the bottom line (and overarching strategy) is that Goodell is trying to avoid / deter a massive lawsuit against the NFL for player injuries.

[KillerGremlin]

It's a shitty situation. On one hand, we all love the NFL because of the huge hits. Huge hits are a part of the game, and when we see somebody (to quote Chris Tucker: you got knocked 'da fuck out'!") get hit it's kind of awesome.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1Mtm2qoexcI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

But as much as we love big hits...we don't want to see people get injured. Especially permanently. And there's kind of a debate that you can't have it both ways. You know, you can't eat your cake and fuck it, or however that expression goes. The reality of the league is that we pay these guys millions of dollars to abuse the crap out of their bodies. NFL players have serious health problems when they retire, they live shorter lives, etc.

So on one hand, it's like "is bounty gate really a big deal." The NFL makes BILLIONS of dollars profiting off of big hits. On the other hand, these were coaches and players systemically gambling on trying to intentionally hurt other players and take them out of the game. I think the big issue here is intentions, and intentions that compromise the league's effort to keep its players safe.

Some people joke that the future of this league will be no hitting the quarterback, and focusing solely on passing. This might as well be flag football, right? It's such a heated topic I honestly don't know where I stand. So I'm just going to stop talking and post this beastly hit where Lance Briggs decks the shit out of Calvin Johnson. This was one of those debatable clean hits that he got fined for:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/a0l-r_HVM6k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Still very cathartic to watch. :D (that was the game the Bears crushed the Lions, the one that got chippy. so fun)

[Professor S]

One problem with how the league is addressing the subject of "illegal hits" is that they are enforcing it subjectively. Referees and the league fine and penalize on what they think is illegal, and worse, often the league fines for hits that were not penalized. Outside of leaving the feet, there are no real set guidelines, and any that exist are so complicated that you can't possibly think about it in the heat of a game that moves so fast.

The worst part is, you can't practice compliance to the current rules. There is no drill for recognizing when a receiver becomes a runner. All you have time to do is smash someone, or not smash someone, that that is exactly what you are seeing. Players are either ignoring the rules completely, or they are playing so safe that they are ineffective at their job.

Easy fix: All tacklers must wrap/TACKLE. No shoulder hits or elbow shivers. No human missiles at all. There will still be violent hits, but the impact is spread cross a far greater area (chest/arms/shoulders/facemask), lessening the trauma. The important part is that YOU CAN PRACTICE THIS TYPE OF TACKLING. You can drill it and drill it until it becomes muscle memory and no thinking is involved, just reaction. They did this YEARS ago in rugby and it was incredibly successful.

[KillerGremlin]

http://www.freep.com/article/20120305/SPORTS01/120305012/Tennessee-Titans-bounties-Jim-Schwartz

Tennessee Titans players ran a player-organized incentive pool that coaches were aware of but didn’t contribute to when Detroit Lions coach Jim Schwartz was the team’s defensive coordinator, former players told the Tennessean.

The newspaper reported that Schwartz “handed out baseball bats or boxing gloves for big hits” while players raised the stakes with monetary rewards.

“Guys would throw out there, ‘Hey, knock this guy out, and it’s worth $1,000,’” safety Lance Schulters, who played for Tennessee in 2002-04, told the paper. “Let’s say when we played the Steelers, and Hines Ward was always trying to knock guys out. So if you knocked (him) out, there might be something in the pot, $100 or whatever, for a big hit on Hines -- a legal, big hit.”

Schwartz is not accused of contributing to nor administering a bounty program like the one that has former Titans and current St. Louis Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams in trouble with the NFL. Schwartz worked as a defensive assistant under Williams for two seasons in Tennessee.

Kyle Vanden Bosch, who played with the Titans in 2005-09, said he never saw Schwartz engage in any bounty behavior.

“No, uh-uh. Not when I was there,” Vanden Bosch said. “I was their there, I think Schwartz’s second or third year (actually his fifth) as D-coordinator, and we didn’t have that.”

Former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy, now with NBC, also told profootballtalk.com he believes the Titans had a bounty on quarterback Peyton Manning but did not offer any specifics.

Dungy, who coached the Colts in 2002-08, during Schwartz’s tenure as Titans defensive coordinator, did not return a phone call from the Free Press on Saturday.

The Lions also declined to comment about Dungy’s accusations Saturday and did not return a phone call this morning.

Lions safety Chris Harris, while declining to provide details, told the Free Press that player-run pay-for-performance programs are common in the NFL.

“It goes on all around the league. I think it does,” he said. “I don’t know if every team does it, but I think it’s more common than most (believe).”

Harris said Lions players did not offer bounties last year, and defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, speaking before a NASCAR race in Arizona via the Charlotte Observer, said Lions coaches and players "wouldn't allow that" to happen.

Vanden Bosch said the team was concerned about cleaning up its image, not setting bounties.

“At a certain point last year, we were doing everything we could to shed the dirty perception, so I don’t think us putting bounties on other teams or quarterbacks would help,” Vanden Bosch said.

Former Lions safety Ron Rice said he saw player-run incentive programs during his tenure with the team in 1995-2001.

“You go out and say, ‘If you get an interception in this game,’ or ‘I got $100 that I’ll get the interception,’” Rice said. “Or if you got a kick returner, he’ll pay the whole return team for every touchdown that he scores. Things like that. But that’s all internal things amongst players. Coaches were never involved in it.”

Rice said offering bounties to injure players is isolated and never was a part of the programs he saw.

“We would never put a bounty on a guy’s head to injure a guy or take a guy off the field on a stretcher or anything like that,” Rice said. “It was moreso money on an interception, money on a big play, making a stop or something like that. But for a team to go out and intentionally focus on hurting a player is totally unacceptable because, again, it goes beyond a game. This is your job, and this is your career and a lot of people, it’s your livelihood, and this is how people earn their living, so it’s unacceptable.”

Harris said most players are aware that player-run incentive pools violate league rules about the salary cap because "the NFL posts a memo on it every year." But he said they've been ingrained in the NFL culture so long, even recent reports might not be enough to stop them.

"I don't know," Harris said. "How can you catch them?"

Williams could face a fine and lengthy suspension after an NFL investigation showed he administered and contributed to a bounty program with the New Orleans Saints in 2009-11. The team also could lose draft picks.

An NFL spokesperson declined comment about the Titans allegations.

[Bond]

Schwartz is a fucking piece of shit and this does not surprise me at all. I hope he gets suspended.