Ornstein

This article goes a long way toward explaining some of the reasons the Saints are being singled out. Of course the NFL should do something to clean up the league-wide practice of putting up "bounties" for injurious hits on players. But the hammer coming down on the Saints has to do with much more than that.

Then there is Mike Ornstein, who will play an integral role in this case going forward, and why this isn’t just about paying a few players to get some big, potentially illegal hits.

From Mike Freeman yesterday, Ornstein was involved in sending e-mails to Sean Payton in both 2009 and 2011 regarding putting in money toward the bounty program for taking out quarterbacks. The NFL has its paper trail, and it ties this to other bad behavior, and ties Sean Payton to having direct knowledge. How do you have written emails and documentation of a bounty program where people, like big donors at major universities, are kicking in money on the side? Hubris.

If you do not know Mike Ornstein, well, he came to the Saints’ attention as the marketing agent for Reggie Bush. He was intimately involved with the Saints in their Super Bowl run in 2009, so much so that Sean Payton credited him for a lot of work behind the scenes. Some of that work, as it turns out, also involved in contributing funds for bounties. Ornstein was such a great guy all around that he was popped on federal charges for scalping tickets, and served jail time. Payton sure tried to downplay their relationship soon after that news came out; you would not know they were e-mail buddies.