Reactions to Goodell's Slamdown of Payton

Well thought out posts regarding the harsh penalties against the Saints for "bounty-gate"


Dave Gladow - New Orleanian and Saints Supporter
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Root for the best, as ever. Support your team, as ever. The circling of the wagons by your average Saints fan is commendable on some level, though also certainly misguided in its attempts to #freeseanpayton. The team deserves your support right now, Saints fans, this is true. But let the individuals who created this mess pay for their part in it. If Payton needs to sit a year, let him sit a year. If the rest of the suspensions need to happen, let them happen.

Maybe then, we can all move past the mire.

From the blog Hurricane Radio
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The Saints aren't supposed to win football games. And the people of New Orleans damn sure aren't supposed to make money selling black and gold items that included a fleur de lis or the words "Who Dat." The league came to remind the people of New Orleans that the NFL owned the colors black and gold, the fleur de lis, the term "Who Dat," and if New Orleanians weren't really respectful about stopping all this nonsense, they were coming after the paper bags, too. If there was any money supposed to be made off the sale of those items, that money should be coming to the league, where it is supposed to be. Stop screwing up the story line here.

But the people of New Orleans told the league to get the hell off their soggy lawns.


My cyberpal Amy Mueller's post on Nolafemmes about the over-the-top punishment given to Sean Payton
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If you look at the NFL’s roster, it’s full of DUIs, incidences of domestic violence, drug possessions, assault and battery, and weapons charges. The media rarely gives these incidences the attention that they have given the Saints and Bountygate, and Roger Goodell and the NFL CERTAINLY have not handed out the punishments for this behavior. In fact, it seems there exists a culture where they turn their heads, pretend these incidences didn’t happen, and hope that people forget about it come Sunday Game Day.


Cenlmar writes about an Unrepentant Saints Fan (that's what I am) at this link
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Greg Williams, incidentally, has taken full responsibility for and ownership of the so-called bounty program, something he also, allegedly, employed while coaching for the Washington Redskins and the Buffalo Bills. Neither of those teams, by the way, have faced any scrutiny; no one is calling for those teams to place asterisks next to their wins. Before ever investigating whether this practice also occurred in other organizations, Goodell imposed stunningly draconian sanctions against the New Orleans Saints– and indeed, by extension, their entire fan base, specifically the City of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana, who directly subsidize the National Football League.



From Jason Calbos at New Orleans Rising blog

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Sean Payton has been handed a suspension that dwarfs Ben Roethlisberger’s for multiple rape accusations. Payton’s suspension is also longer than Micheal Vick’s suspension for dog-fighting, murdering dogs, and gambling. Payton’s suspension outpaces Ray Lewis’s for being part of a murder committed by his posse… longer than Michael Irvin’s for cocaine possession….. longer than Chris Henry’s for assaulting a teenager…… longer than Tank Johnson’s for his arsenal of guns and assaults… and longer than Plaxico Burress’s for illegally discharging a gun in a New York nightclub. If Goodell says he’s here to protect the integrity of the game I’m gonna throw up. If you play in the NFL it’s Apparently ok to rape women, do drugs, kill people or at least hold them while my buddies stab them, run over people crossing the street while drinking and driving, assault teenagers, own more guns than Ted Nugent and discharge weapons in night clubs. But, the moment you get caught continuing an unspoken tradition that is well-known in the NFL by its participants your hammered to the wall?