Bounty Over?

The great hope here is that we heard the last of the Saints bounty crap when former commissioner Paul Tagliabue made his ruling this week as arbitrator. I doubt that this is the end mainly because this is never going to end. Drew Brees won't let it. Brees and the rest of the Saints and their fans seem to think that Tagliabue's ruling exonerated the team from anything to do with the bounties. I don't think that they were listening. I know that they didn't read it. Tagliabue did toss out the player suspensions that current commissioner Roger Goodell handed down but it ends there. Tagliabue said that there's tons of evidence proving that the ridiculous bounty shenanigans did take place. He just didn't think that players were to blame. He said that the organization, the coaches and such were the problem and the players were simply doing as they were instructed. In my book, this is absolute confirmation of the bounties and exoneration of absolutely nothing. The Saints were guilty and Brees and the rest of those Saints shouldn't really be all that happy with themselves. Their guilt is stronger now than it was months ago.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk has been one of the most outspoken critics of the league and especially Roger Goodell throughout this drawn out process. I enjoy most of Florio's writing and many of his views. With his previous life as a lawyer he was a tremendous source of information and explanation during the lockout. I agree with some of his criticisms of Goodell's investigation and handling of the bounty accusations. It really wasn't handled very well. I disagree with about everything else that Florio has to say about this mess. He was a guest on Peter King's podcast this week to discuss Tagliabue's ruling. Florio said that if Jonathan Vilma, the coaches and whoever else had really put up a bunch of money for any player that took Brett Favre out of the 2009 NFC Championship game, there would be "a bunch of Jeff Gillooly's running around trying to kneecap someone" on game day. I guess that he didn't watch the game. That's exactly what I saw that day. I saw a bunch of Saints player running around with more than stopping the Vikings offense on their mind. One of the idiot Saints player "blew up" Favre long after he had handed the ball off  to Adrian Peterson. I've seen quarterbacks hit like that when they are looking pitch on an option. There isn't much chance of Favre running the option. I've never seen a quarterback get hit like that as he's watching the running back with the ball. It wasn't so much that they hit him it was how they hit him, when they hit him and how often. The intent to injure was obvious. There were too many late hits on Favre when he actually threw the ball to not be suspicious of something. One Saints player was fined for three separate hits. That's ridiculous. No player has ever before received fines for three different hits in one game. When news of the bounties came out it explained a lot. I just wish that people would stop making excuses for what the New Orleans Saints did. Some have said that it was ok since other teams have been doing similar stunts for years. That's really no excuse but I've still never seen a team play with such a complete disregard for the rules or with less respect for their peers. All of the Saints sketchy actions were made so much worse when they were told to stop and didn't. They were told to knock it off. Didn't. Then lied about it. Pretty classy. It doesn't matter that the player suspensions were lifted. The acknowledged guilt lasts and will forever taint that New Orleans Saints Super Bowl season.