NEW ORLEANS —An investigation by the NFL has found that former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams maintained a “bounty” program in violation of league rules from 2009-11, including cash for injuring players and knocking them out of games.
Most fans are aware that Williams and his friend Jeff Fisher who he has gone to work for now with the Rams are part of the Buddy Ryan "coaching tree." Ryan, you might remember, invented bounty hunting during his tenure with the Eagles.
Update: Gregg Williams has issued a public apology but if one reads between the lines there it looks as though he's talking about something he "got caught up in" rather than something he originated.
Does that implicate Payton? Loomis? Mercedes-Benz? Here we learn that Tom Benson became aware of the bounty pool and approached Loomis about shutting it down. Apparently that didn't happen.
Is Williams pointing a finger back in the direction of his players, then? Some of the Twittering points at Jonathan Vilma probably because we know he was alleged to have been involved in a similar scheme in college.
I guess the one thing we can bank on is that since it's only humans and not dogs who were endangered by these activities, no one is going to jail.
Anyway... suddenly I'm excited about football season again.
Upperdate: Check the following series of tweets by NFL reporter Jason La Canfora
Memo sent to NFL clubs notes an incident with Saints LB Jon Vilma putting up $10K cash for a pre-playoff bounty and also notes that...
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) March 2, 2012
, according to the memo, Sean Payton's agent, Mike Ornstein, put up money for a bounty on two occasions. Memo says the actions of ...
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) March 2, 2012
Payton and GM Mickey Loomis serves as "conduct detrimental" to the game. Hard not to think steep punishment is coming
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) March 2, 2012
Uppestdate: Yes, this sort of thing likely happens all the time in pro football. Yes, Gregg Williams does it all the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment