Erasing a Legacy

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News broke today of the New Orleans Saints "Pay for Performance" program which offered players extra money for their onfield production on defense for such actions as sacks, interceptions, and number of tackles.  While that alone violated league policy involving player incentives, this program also rewarded players with cash bonuses for injuring opposing players.  If that sounds unethical and immoral, that's because it is.


The Saints as a franchise have endured some of the most devastating and disappointing years in the history of the NFL.  Until 2009, they had yet to even appear in a Super Bowl.  They were plagued by a history of close calls and 'almosts.'  Add to that the wholesale devastation to the city of New Orleans after Katrina and the fact the city almost lost their NFL team to San Antonio, and you come to the 2009 run that saw the Saints as Super Bowl Champions, etching their names into history and cementing every player and coach involved as heroes in the eyes of Saints fans and fans of football in general.  That is the legacy the Saints should have left behind.

Instead, we stand here in 2012 reading or watching an apology from Gregg Williams, former defensive coordinator of the Saints during the time frame their 'Bounty Program' was in place.  It would be nice to consider it a sincere apology, if you were able to ignore the fact that he ran a similar program when he was coaching the Redskins.  It's hard to listen to his present apology without thinking that he had already put a similar program in place with his present team, the Rams.

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Coach Payton spent a good deal of his career building up to the 2009 Super Bowl run, and had firmly implanted himself as one of the best coaches in the NFL.  Fans of the Saints and those who followed football in general put him on a pedestal, a coach to be emulated.  His famous surprise onside kick is legendary, and was immediately written into every playbook in the NFL.  And yet, he will now be remembered as the coach that condoned the wholesale attacks on opposing players that went beyond the already physical nature of the game.  It has not been alluded to that Coach Payton contributed to the fund, or encouraged it, but he was made aware of it and did nothing about it.  Knowledge of unethical and immoral acts without acting yourself to prevent it is in and of itself an unethical and immoral act.  Coach Payton should feel ashamed, embarrassed, and responsible for his team and coaching staff's conduct and subsequent disgrace of their franchise and team. 

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And what of the players?  The NFLPA is supposed to be a brotherhood.  A union.  A group of players united in the goal of protecting their livelihoods and working towards better benefits and better treatment.  And yet there are 22-27 players who participated in a program where it was not only considered okay to seek to injure other players, but it was encouraged and rewarded.  Would you, as a player, want to share a locker room with a guy who would break your legs if he had the opportunity, not because it's a part of the game and it's dangerous but because he could get a little scratch on the side?

Injuries are a part of football.  If a player tackles another, and in the course of the tackle puts his weight down on the other player's knee and he subsequently tears his ACL, that's devastating.  It puts that player's career in jeopardy.  It's painful.  But it's understandable.  The game is dangerous, it's part of what makes it entertaining.  If a player tackles another, specifically trying to twist him at the knees in the hopes of getting him carted off the field so he can collect a $10,000 bonus (a lot of money, but a miniscule percentage of many of these player's contracts), that player is nothing more than a paid thug, a mercenary.  $10,000?  That's how much Saints Linebacker Jonathan Vilma offered to whichever player knocked then Viking QB Brett Favre out of the NFCCG in 2009. 

At least the Saints didn't take money for this 'Bounty Fund' from outside sources, right?  I mean, if they did that, anybody with a stake in the game or who had placed bets could throw a little money in the pot in the hopes of swinging the game (And thus their own potential profits) in their favor.

Right?

Except, that totally happened.  A Marketing Agent named Michael Ornstein (A convicted felon, for fraud), contributed $10,000 in 2009 and contributed at least twice in 2011 according to CBS Sports, who obtained a copy of a memo sent to the 32 teams about the investigation.

Time will tell how Commissioner Goodell and the NFLPA dole out punishments to the Saints, the players, and the coaches involved in this disgrace.  Considering the continued attention to player safety that the NFL has been striving for, it is likely to be extremely severe for all parties involved.

In my opinion, and granted I haven't even heard the punishments yet, I doubt it will be enough.

Jonathan Vilma, Gregg Williams, Sean Payton, General Manager Mickey Loomis, owner Tom Benson, the Saints as a whole, and everyone in between has forever tainted the game of football .  While all parties involved should be ashamed and embarrassed for their actions (And inaction), I've been watching long enough to know that they will only be embarrassed for getting caught.  It's unlikely they will even acknowledge that they took all of the emotion, the pride, and the joy of bringing a Super Bowl Victory to the downtrodden city of New Orleans and turning it into...whatever this is.