The details of the Bounty System are as follows: players received $1500 for "knockout hits", $1000 for "cart-off" hits with payoff amounts doubling and tripling if they took place during playoff games. There also is a memo from the league that Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma put up a $10,000 bounty before a playoff game, as well as agent Mike Ornstein fronted the money for bounties at least twice. The investigation also concluded that bounty funds might have reached as much as $50,000 at one point.
The investigation into the bounties began after allegations arose that Saint defenders were targeting Kurt Warner and Brett Favre. As far as "who knew what when", Head Coach Sean Payton, and GM Mickey Loomis were very much aware of Williams' Bounty System. Even more galling, is that Saints owner Tom Benson also found about the Bounty System and told both Loomis and Payton to shut it down. Despite the mandate from Benson, Loomis and Payton did nothing to stop it.
There are also reports that Williams implemented a Bounty System when he was defensive coordinator for the Bills and Redskins.
The reaction has been pretty varied. Obviously Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke about it very foreboding terms, citing that player safety has never been more important than it currently is, and this behavior is in complete violation of player safety in addition to violating the rules and salary cap.
In terms of fans and media reaction, there has been everything from Doug Farrar of Yahoo Sports calling for a "lifetime ban" for Gregg Williams, to former player Matt Bowen pulling the "part of the game" card. Others are also pointing out that similar systems have existed for decades in the NFL, and that it's impossible to stop it, blah, blah, blah...
In my view, this is absolute garbage.
First of all the league has rules against the Bounty System and they should be respected, even though they also have rules against taking steroids, and obviously those rules aren't being followed. Despite the league rules already in place, I don't necessarily have an issue with bounties being part of a locker room, or having a defensive coordinator orchestrate an entire system around it. My issue stems from a Bounty System encouraging/rewarding players to play with deliberate intent to injure, rather than for clean solid plays.
Bounties for interceptions, fumble recoveries, and touchdowns? Fine. Bounties for "Cart-offs", "knockouts", and "kill shots"? Hell no! There has been, and always will be a line in every level of football separating aggressive play designed to cause pain, and cheap shots designed to cause injury.
An example I keep referring people to is Bill "Romo" Romanowski. Romo was one of the dirtiest players whoever played the game. Among his most notable incidents were a helmet-to-helmet hit that broke Kerry Collins jaw...in a PRESEASON game. Romo also kicked Larry Centers in the head during a game, and most notoriously tried to break Shannon Sharpe's arm during a game. You can see footage of the Sharpe play here.
All of those incidents involved Romo trying to injure someone, versus taking out players cleanly, and they all cross the line between good aggressive play, and intent to cause injury. As a result, Romo was vilified and despised by both opponents AND teammates (see Marcus Williams). The reason for Romo's universal dislike is very simple: he played the game with intent to injure, and was justifiably seen as a dirty player.
It is this type of play that I feel Williams' Bounty System is encouraging, and there's plenty of evidence suggesting that it did occur with the Saints. From Adrian Peterson suggesting the Saints targeted his high ankle sprain, to Jay Cutler getting kicked in the throat during the Saints game in week 2, there's plenty of mounting evidence suggesting that the line is/was habitually crossed by the Saints.
I'm predicting that Goodell will be looking to make a bold statement in this situation. Goodell will make prominent examples of both Williams' and the Saints. I don't think it will be as big as a lifetime ban, but certainly will be along the lines of what the Spygate punishment was for the Patriots. Two Draft picks, Millions of dollars in fines, and definitely a half-season suspension for Williams' at least.
That's a good place to start.
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