This special reward program, as you may assume, violates the NFL's policies on bounties and the punishment that is expected to be handed down to Saints defenders as well as former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams(now with the Rams) and the team itself is expected to make the SpyGate sentence dealt to New England a few years ago look like a slap on the wrist. Fines, suspensions, loss of draft picks.....any combination of those and even more likely all of the above is expected to be levied on the boys from N'awlins for three years worth of head-hunting.
The penalty will most certainly send a message and set a precedent, but if it's a P.R. battle Goodell is expecting to win by coming down hard on the Saints....well, good luck with that. Don't get me wrong: What the Saints did was wrong and justice needs to be served and, knowing Goodell, it most certainly will. However, while you'll get no opposition from even the most jaded fans that taking the field with the intent to injure your opponent for the sole reward of a few extra bucks in your pocket is classless and unacceptable, Goodell is going to find it's going to be an uphill battle getting all of NFL's fan nation to be on his side in this one.
Roger Goodell has bent over backwards to uphold the safety of the players he is employed to look out for. The problem with that is his caution has divided fans into two sides: Those that are willing to accept the changes to the game if it means less long-term injuries to the men we pay good money to see and whose talents hold the keys to our team's success and those that feel Goodell has somehow ripped the spine out of the smashmouth way of play that this game was built on. It's no coincidence offensive numbers have skyrocketed over the last few years since Goodell has implemented stricter rules on the way defenders hit their offensive counterparts. Over the years, we've seen defensive ends back off wrap tackles on quarterbacks out of fear of phantom roughing calls. We've seen defensive backs be less physical with receivers coming off the line and we've seen linebackers and safeties get a bit timid when faced with the opportunity to pop someone going the middle.
There's a reason why guys who lay the wood on opponents like Pittsburgh's James Harrison, Baltimore's Ray Lewis and San Fran's Donte Whitner are so revered by fans. Those men represent the hard-hitting, old-school way of defending those hashmarks. Evolution has made it so checks and balances have to be put in place to keep 240-pound linebackers that run a 4.4 40 from killing their equally athletic rivals. Still, Goodell's approach in recent years is more an example of cutting off your nose to spite your face than something that will be universally accepted as good for the game. After all, last season so many a player take that vaunted cart ride to the infirmary, whether it be guys like Adrian Peterson or Jason Campbell. You can attribute that to the lockout robbing folks of proper conditioning but these are well-conditioned athletes at the end of the day that are paid to stay in good shape.
Goodell's philosophy on how defenders should hit has made life harder for the guys who are paid to stop opposing offenses in their tracks and, conversely, has turned even the most measly of aerial attacks into "The Greatest Show On Turf". Need an example? This past year's Super Bowl featured a Patriots team that was near the bottom in every major defensive category playing a Giants team that ranked dead-last defending the run. New York topped New England because the one thing they do well(rush the passer) was better than the one thing the Pats do well(throw the ball). The Packers went 15-1 with a defense that closely resembled a JV scrimmage. You had three quarterbacks throw for 5,000 yards last year(Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Matt Stafford) and another come within a couple hundred yards of joining them(Eli Manning). Before this season, one man threw for 5,000 yards in a season....and he held the record for most yards in a single season(Dan Marino). When the smoke cleared on the 2011 regular season, Marino's seemingly-unbreakable record was broken....twice.....in the same season. You had a rookie QB with no training camp coming out of an option-heavy offense throw for 4,000 yards and break the rookie season record for passing yards that was set by arguably the greatest passer of our generation. Thanks to Roger Goodell, Cam Newton and Peyton Manning are going to be mentioned in the same breath(and that's not me taking anything away from Cam, but think of how many traditional, pro-ready QB's have come into this league since 1998 and they were all bested by a guy who ran the same offense at Auburn, give or take, that Tim Tebow ran this past season).
What does this have to do with the Saints? Well, nothing. What the Saints did was take Goodell's crackdown on player safety to an extreme and they deserve every last penalty they get. But if Goodell is looking for a nation full of hand-wringing after he lowers the boom on New Orleans, he's going to be disappointed. In protecting the players, Goodell transformed football into two-hand touch. Injuries and hard hits are a part of the game. Yes, malicious intent has no business on the football field but sometimes when you try your hardest to make things safe, you do more harm than good. I don't know whether the Saints' "bounty system" was an act of defiance to try an rebel against Goodell's sissy-fying the game of football, but it wouldn't surprise me if there are few people out there who read about what the Saints were attempting and grin from ear to ear(I, personally, found the "bounty" on Brett Favre in the 2009 NFC Championship amusing. Although I'll confess I'd be livid if one of the Saints deliberately tried to take out Aaron Rodgers in the 2011 opener. I guess you can't have it both ways). It's the way of the world. Some people watch hockey to see Sid The Kid score a hat trick. Some watch it to see two guys slug it out in the middle of the ice. Some football fans live for the fantasy points and the touchdowns. Some want to see a wideout's head get taken off. You can't please everybody. Watch tapes of Ditka's Bears or the old Steel Curtain.....those were teams that prided themselves on setting the tone by using brute force and intimidation to beat opponents. Try telling Ronnie Lott it's not OK to go out and injure people for money. Offenses light up the scoreboard because they play the game without fear. Tom Brady knows that some posturing to the ref after a defender comes too close to his knees will get him the flag he wants. Andre Johnson knows a little contact when the ball's in the air gets him a pass interference call 9 times out of 10. You can't have offensive players scared someone's gunning for your head. You also can't have defenders scared to do their job. There's a middle ground between both issues. It's paper-thin but it exists.
At the end of the day, the Saints went overboard and what happens to them will set the bar for any other team that wants to put prices on the heads of the NFL's golden boys(although a bigger issue going forward is going to be identifying malicious intent. Defenders are paid to hit. How can one differentiate what hits are meant to stop the ballcarrier from those that are intended to put guys on a stretcher?) but I'm not willing to make the Saints out to be villains just yet. Defenders are paid to hit, intimidate and do what they can to impinge offenses from having field days out there. They aren't paid to intentionally cause harm. That's where the line needs to be drawn. In an attempt to protect the players, Roger Goodell made the game more entertaining while also thumbing its nose at its roots. You can't be surprised that some people aren't on board with that.
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