Before I continue, it is important to note that I am in no way a New Orleans Saints fan and am not associated with the franchise in any way. The only invested interest I will ever have in the team consists of welcoming players like Drew Brees and Marques Colston to my yearly fantasy football teams. That being said, the penalties levied on the Saints’ coaches and administration earlier in the week by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell crossed the quickly-fading line of integrity that is the disciplinary action seemingly being shelled out on a daily basis by league administration.
In addition to Payton being suspended for an entire season, the coach will also lose the $7 million he was slated to receive during the 2012-2013 season. Additionally, the league is expected to soon drop the hammer on several current and former Saints players who were involved in the bounty program, with expected punishments extending from six-digit fines to multi-game suspensions.
Call me crazy, but I just cannot comprehend why the Saints have been made out to be so hellish in this situation. I know I am most likely in the minority, but I truly do not see the big deal in compensating players outside of their contract for making impactful plays during the course of a game. The spectrum of the issue I have with “illegal” hits extends much wider than the Saints’ issues, though. On a weekly basis during the NFL season, various players around the league are suspended an average man’s yearly salary for plays deemed malicious by league administration. James Harrison, a linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers and a main target of league discipline for violent play, was fined a total of $125,000 during the 2010-2011 season and was suspended for one game a year later for plays that just years before would have been praised on TV shows like ESPN’s “Jacked Up.” Now, defensive players can hardly form-tackle an offensive player without being reprimanded by NFL league offices that have lost sight of the intended nature of professional football.
It was not always like this, though. The NFL that I fell in love with growing up was known by all as a tough, hard-nosed league that promoted physicality instead of condemning it. However, as time has progressed, mainly since 2006 when Goodell was named league commissioner, the league has done everything in its power to stray away from the same violent nature that helped popularize the sport during its developmental stages. While the league publicly campaigns the notion of maintaining efficient long-term mental and physical health of its players, I cannot help but wonder if the pledge against violence is a sideshow to the league protecting its most prized possessions, such as Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers, who all make the league millions of dollars every time they fasten their chin straps. Showing public concern for the health of players is honorable, yes, but it would be hard to assume the league would not do everything in its power to increase violence if it meant an increase in revenue and cash flow.
I get that Sean Payton and other Saints administration lied to investigators. I understand that they misled the league officials who were trying to uncover the facts of the bounty program, and I am not saying the league should sweep this issue under the rug and pretend it never happened. If you dodge the correct answers amidst an investigation into your organization, you deserve to be punished, but a one-year suspension and a $7 million loss of salary? Payton’s punishment seems overly-harsh at best and completely illogical at worst. Furthermore, let’s not lose sight of the big picture, and the fact that the hammer of authority was dropped on current and former Saints personnel for paying players to make plays that epitomized every quality the sport of football has historically represented: relentless, physical and incautious.
I am not as heartless as I seem. I am all for the league making state-of-the-art equipment modifications and other changes to increase safety around the league. However, excessively fining and suspending NFL players and extensively punishing teams in essence for playing the game the way they were taught is reckless and quickly changing the fabric of the most popular sport in the entire country. If this trend continues and the league continues taking away the physicality of the game, I fear that one day, my kids will turn on the television every Sunday and watch professional athletes play two-hand touch or flag football.