Sean Payton suspended by the NFL!?

Just...wow. On both counts.

Saints: pretty harsh sentence, but should discourage like behavior from other clubs. The two second round picks is as big as a deal as the suspensions, IMHO. That puts them at salary cap disadvantage because they'll need to fill those slots with free agents at open market prices, rather than with (relatively) inexpensive rookie-scale folks.

Jets: Now you've got three second string quarterbacks, two of which have cinder-block sized shoulder chips, congrats. The media can breathe easy, too; they'll be something other than A-Rod to write about...but truthfully, I'm pretty thankful that some Tebow coverage may displace the NIT and NCAA Women's from ESPN. Silver lining...

Surprised to see the punishement hit so harsh and so high up in the organization.

"The NFL said payoffs went to 22 to 27 defensive players for inflicting game-ending injuries on targeted opponents, including quarterbacks Brett Favre and Kurt Warner. "Knockouts" were worth $1,500 and "cart-offs" $1,000, with payments doubled or tripled for the playoffs."

For such relatively paltry payouts. I can't imagine they were really that big of a motivating factor to begin with. Poor decision making all around.

IMHO the bigger deal is Williams is suspended indefinitely.  Could easily end his career as a coach.

The Saints aren't going to have a home super bowl this year.

Sean Payton's suspension is also going to cost him $8 million, his salary this year.

On a more positive note...

I wonder what the possibility of Sean Peyton spending his extra time "assisting" the LSU offensive coaching line would be?

lol...

Seriously... this is way overboard!!  Wish there was more I could do to boycott the NFL, but unfortunately w/ my husband being from NY I'm forced to watch Giants games     (not that that would be enough anyhow).

But it's okay... remember when people wore paperbags to the games???  Yeah, we'll rise again, just need a little more voodoo and a few more pin dolls.

Agreed.   I know it's football and it's a tough sport but what the Saints did was over the line. 

Two draft picks, and the loss of head coach. That is a team punishment.

And I said this always goes on.. there have always been incentives for plays... or some players wanted to knock another player out of the game... but ya... this was over the line. the organization, the team managment, bounties of players, people, not game or position... it was over the line. Not cool at all.

They were docked draft picks, 2 2nd rounders ('12, '13). A 500K fine (which may go against the salary cap). Plus a coach out for a year. Pretty significant. 

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7718136/sean-payton-new-orleans-saints-banned-one-year-bounties

I also understood from the initial story that outside people (e.g., sponsors, local businessmen, etc) contributed to the bounty fund. That, IMHO, is another level of seriousness. Basically, if you have money outside the game, you can pay it and have influence on the outcome of the game. Wonder whatever happened to that angle...

Ya, I have to agree. Usually the players themselves handle this. It is their livelihood. They want to keep playing and keep making money. But when you have one team going "rogue" rolling dirty... ya, you have to lower the boom.

I think that would only matter if it was big money... I mean really... throwing games or plays to alter outcomes and bets has always been available. The amounts of the bountys were miniscule to a player. $1000 to a guy making several million a year? I always took the amounts like a "gentleman's bet". The prize was nothing, it was the play that mattered.... and yes that would open a huge can of worms.. but a player is going to risk millions on some "guy" chipping in $1000 for a hit?

 So...are you saying you condone this type of asanine behavior?  They're got off easy in my opinion!