If the NFL were to punish every team that ran a bounty program, there are very few teams they wouldn't have to punish. That's becoming obvious in the wake of the Saints' bounty scandal, and in the parade of stories making clear that money is going to be a large factor in the league's investigation. There may be no specific prohibitions on intent to injure, but the NFL can and will legislate from existing CBA rules on salary cap circumvention. The league (and the IRS) can come down as hard as it wants on players being paid for performance under the table, and you can expect them to come down hard when some of those payments were coming from a twice-convicted felon with a history of football scandals.
Read on but understand, as we get further into this and it turns out that the NFL is in fact not punishing every team that ran a bounty program, that the real purpose of this whole to-do is to get back at Payton and Ornstein.
Update: Whoah Clancy Dubos is pissed! Which is something I enjoy on the occasions which he happens also to be right.
Ever wonder why Spygate was soft-pedaled? Gee, could it be a big-market bias on the part of the NFL and the media? Let’s face it, the media have loved putting down New Orleans and the Saints over the years. Then the team’s Super Bowl run two years ago — and its excellent play this year — spoiled all their fun. Now they get to pile on once again, and they can’t wait.
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