Mutiny of the bounty, Monday edition - PFT

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Posted by Mike Florio on March 5, 2012, 8:16 AM EST

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It’s Monday. Welcome back to work. Before the boss starts looking over your shoulder, here’s a chance to get caught up on one of the biggest scandals in NFL history, which the league wisely slipped through the late Friday afternoon five hole.

Right after you turned off your computer and headed home for a weekend of not surfing the Internet on your own time.

You’re likely feeling a little inadequate right now, because you don’t know the details as well as you’d like. That’s why we’re going to take you on a quick tour of the 29 bounty-related stories that have been posted here since Friday.

Yep, while you weren’t working, we were.

Then again, this really ain’t work.

It all started with a bolt-from-the-blue press release. The league has concluded that the Saints ran from 2009 through 2011 a system of payments to defensive players for, among other things, inflicting injury on opponents.

Coach Sean Payton knew about the program, and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams administered it.

Bounties fueled the Saints’ 2009 playoff run. The Vikings, who lost to the Saints in the 2009 NFC championship after linebacker Jonathan Vilma offered $10,000 to whoever knocks Brett Favre out of the game, aren’t talking, but plenty of you believe the news taints the Saints’ Super Bowl win.

Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner’s final game included being blown up by former Saints defensive end Bobby McCray a week before the Vikings-Saints playoff. Warner nevertheless thinks bounties have been part of the NFL for a long time.

The NFL insists Saints owner Tom Benson didn’t know about the bounties. In what likely will be regarded in time as one of the great sports-related understatements, Benson issued a statement calling the findings “troubling.”

Williams has confessed, even though former Saints safety Darren Sharper apparently didn’t get the memo. In a statement issued through his new employer, the Rams, Williams called it a “terrible mistake,” and he said “we knew it was wrong while we were doing it.”

Which, by definition, means it wasn’t a mistake.

It’s also harder to accept the notion that it was a mistake, given allegations that Williams apparently ran a bounty program when he worked for the Redskins and the Bills. The league will investigate the situation in Washington.

Former Colts coach Tony Dungy told PFT on Friday night that the in 2006, under Williams.

The league says it’s not aware of bounties in any other cities, and former Redskins coach Joe Gibbs says he didn’t know about any of it in D.C. This means either that the investigators didn’t ask Williams if he used bounties before his time with the Saints, or that they asked him and he denied it. Regardless, they’ll be asking Williams about it on Monday.

Speaking of denials, the investigation regarding the Saints nearly died on the vine because everyone involved said it didn’t happen. Now that the league has found evidence that the bounty program did indeed exist, those who were dishonest to the investigators should face enhanced penalties.

Saints G.M. Mickey Loomis also apparently lied to owner Tom Benson, and Loomis definitely failed to put the practice to an end once Loomis was told to do so by Benson. The fact that Loomis reportedly won’t be fired for such a flagrant example of insubordination invites speculation that Loomis is simply covering for Benson.

Benson’s own punishment likely will consist of a hefty fine imposed on his team and a forfeiture of draft picks, even though the team traded in 2011 its first-round pick in 2012. (If the NFL really wants to punish the Saints, the league should take away its franchise tag.)

Lengthy suspensions are expected for Williams, Loomis, and coach Sean Payton, along with multiple players. The expected absence of key members of the organization as of Week One helps explain the team’s decision to volunteer for the Hall of Fame game, which will give them two extra weeks and one extra preseason game to get ready for the inevitable absence of people like Payton.

A decision on punishment will be made by the March 25 league meetings. The NFLPA has vowed to review the NFL’s report, but the union has taken no position on the situation, yet.

Some wonder whether a few extra dollars makes a difference to a highly-compensated pro football player. Apparently, it does. Which makes cash money the NFL’s equivalent of a helmet sticker.

Of course, helmet stickers don’t constitute taxable income. Cash money does, and the IRS could start poking around.

Other law-enforcement agencies could get involved as the situation unfolds. This story is far closer to the beginning than the end, and we’ll be following it every step of the way.

Now, get back to work.

[CAG CheechDogg]

Posted by Mike Florio on March 5, 2012, 7:18 AM EST

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With evidence of the teams for which Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams worked over the past decade having internal systems that paid players for specific instances of on-field performance, it’s no surprise that there’s now evidence of the team with which he spent a full decade doing the same thing.

Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean reports that the Tennessee Titans (and, before that, the Tennessee Oilers and, before that, the Houston Oilers) “had a player-organized performance incentives pool to reward big plays — everything from bone-jarring hits to touchdowns to downing punts inside the 10 — with extra money.”

Former players who spoke to Wyatt said “coaches were aware” of the activity, but that the coaches “didn’t organize bonus programs or hand out money for deliberately injuring an opponent.”

Of course, there’s a fine line between “bone-jarring hits” and deliberate efforts to injure. (Or maybe there isn’t.)

One play said the mentality traces to Buddy Ryan, who served as defensive coordinator of the Oilers in the early 1990s.

“Buddy used to put it simple: If you take the other team’s best player out, your chance of winning increases dramatically,” former Oilers linebacker Al Smith told Wyatt.

Wyatt writes that, of a dozen players interviewed, none said that Williams administered a program for financially rewarding players who injured opponents. But safety Lance Schulters, who arrived in Tennessee after Williams left and Jim Schwartz became the defensive coordinator, admitted that the players had a system of their own.

“Guys would throw out there, ‘Hey, knock this guy out and it’s worth $1,000,’” Schulters said. “Let’s say when we played the Steelers, and Hines Ward was always trying to knock guys out. So if you knocked [him] out, there might be something in the pot, $100 or whatever, for a big hit on Hines — a legal, big hit.

“In some of our [defensive back meeting] rooms we had money up for big hits, stuff like that. But it wasn’t dirty, or anything crazy like ‘Take this guy’s knee out and you get $5,000.’ It was just a way of keeping it interesting.”

Schulter’s right about one thing. The habit — long suspected and now fully exposed — definitely will keep it interesting, for weeks if not months.

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James Harrison eager to see the NFL’s punishment for the Saints

Posted by Michael David Smith on March 5, 2012, 7:13 AM EST

AP

Steelers linebacker James Harrison has been fined more than anyone as the NFL has cracked down on helmet-to-helmet hits in the last couple of years. And now he says he’ll be watching intently to see the NFL’s next major discipline issue.

Harrison wrote on Twitter that he wants to know what the league is going to do about the Saints paying bounties for defensive players knocking opponents out of games.

“We’ll see how concerned the NFL is about player safety when they decide what the punishment for the saints is,” Harrison wrote. “I’ll just say this, if that was me I would have been kicked out of the NFL!”

Harrison, who has been fined several times and suspended for one game for illegal hits, didn’t say what he sees as an appropriate penalty.

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Report: League summons Gregg Williams to New York

Posted by Mike Florio on March 4, 2012, 8:26 PM EST

Reuters

Usually, players pay visits to the proverbial principal’s office. On Monday, Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams will make the trek to Manhattan for a meeting with league officials regarding his use of a bounty system in at least one — and reportedly more — NFL cities.

Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that Williams will meet with NFL security officials Jeff Miller and Joe Hummel “for another round of dialogue.” Williams also may meet with Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Based on the text of the league’s release from Friday regarding the discovery of a bounty program that Williams administered in New Orleans, it’s more than reasonable to conclude that Williams has met with league officials at least twice before. On at least one occasion, WIlliams — and other coaches and players — said they know nothing about players being paid extra for turnovers and/or kill shots. On at least one other occasion, Williams came clean.

So why has Williams been summoned to New York on the first business day after the situation publicly came to light? It probably has something to do with reports that Williams ran a bounty program when serving as the defensive coordinator in Washington and as the head coach in Buffalo. If, as NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told Tim Graham of the Buffalo News, the league is not aware of bounty systems in other cities, it means that the league either didn’t ask Williams about it, or that Williams didn’t tell.

And if Williams specifically was asked but failed to tell, he undoubtedly faces an extra level of consequences, up to and including banishment from the league.

Surely, Miller and Hummel at some point asked Williams regarding the bounty program in New Orleans, “Is this the extent of it?” Apparently, Williams said yes.

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Williams, Payton, Loomis, players all may face long suspensions

Posted by Michael David Smith on March 4, 2012, 7:16 PM EST

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Lengthy and unprecedented suspensions appear to be coming for those involved in the Saints’ practice of paying bounties to players who injured opponents.

Mark Maske of the Washington Post reports that the NFL is considering long suspensions for head coach Sean Payton, General Manager Mickey Loomis, former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and players who were involved in bounties.

How long? Maske cited an unnamed source who said suspensions could be half a season or longer. One person familiar with the NFL’s thinking on the matter mentioned the decision in 1963 by NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle to suspend Packers running back Paul Hornung and Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras for an entire season for gambling.

Williams, who ran the bounty program and who’s now the defensive coordinator of the Rams, would seem to be the person who would get the longest suspension. Rams head coach Jeff Fisher should probably be in the process of coming up with a Plan B at the defensive coordinator position on his coaching staff because Williams, the Plan A, may be unavailable for some or all of the season.

But Payton and Loomis appear to be facing discipline as well, and players involved could also be suspended. The NFL said 22 to 27 players on the Saints were involved, but the league hasn’t said who those players are. We don’t know how many are still in the league, how many are still with the Saints and whether some players were ringleaders of the bounty program and will face more significant than others.

What is clear is that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is preparing to come down hard. After the Spygate scandal, Goodell stripped the Patriots of a first-round pick, fined Bill Belichick $500,000 and fined the Patriots $250,000. All indications are that the sanctions for the Saints will be significantly more severe.

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Report: Bills had bounty system under Gregg Williams

Posted by Mike Florio on March 4, 2012, 7:07 AM EST

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Buddy Ryan once said Kevin Gilbride should be selling insurance. One of their colleagues at the time very well may be, soon.

Gregg Williams, who spent a decade with the Oilers/Titans before becoming the head coach of the Bills, now faces allegations of running a bounty program in a third NFL city: Buffalo.

Tim Graham of the Buffalo News reports that multiple former Bills players allege that Williams maintained such a system during his three seasons as the teams head coach, from 2001 through 2003. Former safety Coy Wire told Graham that “[t]here was financial compensation” for inflicting injury. Two other former players speaking on the condition of anonymity said the same thing.

“That’s real,” Wire said. “That happened in Buffalo. There were rewards. There never was a point where cash was handed out in front of the team. But surely, you were going to be rewarded. When somebody made a big hit that hurt an opponent, it was commended and encouraged.”

Though Wire claims he never received any payment (which may be related to potential IRS complications), Wire acknowledged that he was praised for delivering a career-ending injury during a preseason game. “I shattered [running back] James Stewart’s shoulder, and he never played again,” Wire said. “I was showered with praise for that. It’s a shame that’s how it was. Now I see how wrong that was.”

Other former Bills claim that Williams didn’t encourage players to injure opponents. Linebacker Eddie Robinson, for example, said, “I’ve seen him at every level and heard him talk in front of a lot of guys. I’ve never heard him say ‘Go out there and hurt somebody,’ and I don’t want him to get that kind of rap.”

But Robinson admitted that cash changed hands. “In football, what people don’t realize, players use money as an incentive,” Robinson said. “Me, personally, I don’t see anything wrong with guys in the meeting room saying, ‘Anybody gets the most sacks in this game gets $100.’”

The Bills deny knowledge of any type of bounty program, and NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told Graham that “[n]o evidence of violations at other teams” was discovered during the investigation regarding the Saints.

And that means one of two things: (1) the investigators somehow didn’t ask Williams once he admitted to running a bounty program in New Orleans where he did so elsewhere; or (2) the investigators asked, and Williams denied it.

If it’s the first one, the investigators should be fired. If it’s the second, Williams should be.

Either way, the oil slick that started just north of the Gulf of Mexico will spread to Washington and to Buffalo. With hundreds of former players now suing the league for the consequences of a career’s worth of concussions, don’t be surprised if more allegations of bounty programs emerges, with the league eventually having to turn over stones in most if not all NFL cities.

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NFL will now investigate Redskins bounty program

Posted by Mike Florio on March 3, 2012, 10:16 PM EST

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Between Mark Maske’s Friday report in the Washington Post and former Redskins safety Matt Bowen’s Saturday item for the Chicago Tribune, it seems clear that, like the Saints, the Redskins under defensive coordinator Gregg Williams had a bounty program.

That’s apparently news to the NFL.

Maske reports that the league will investigate whether the Redskins used bounties. Though Maske, citing a source, characterizes the review as almost perfunctory, the fact remains that if the players tell the league what they told Maske, and if Bowen’s article is accepted as true and accurate, not much of an investigation will be needed.

And if the use of a bounty program with the Redskins is indeed news to the NFL, it likely means that, when Gregg Williams inevitably was given a chance to purge his soul by confessing the depth of the rabbit hole, he said something like “I swear I never did it before being hired by the Saints.”

If that’s the case — if Williams lied to the league about pre-New Orleans bounties after initially lying to the league about using bounties with the Saints — Williams has to go. Permanently.

Apart from any discipline imposed on the Saints or any other coaches or any of the players involved, if Williams failed to admit the extent of his use of a bounty program after finally admitting to using one in New Orleans, the man who recently was hired to serve as the Rams defensive coordinator should be banned from the NFL, for life.

Harsh? Yes. But necessary.

Apart from the habit (not mistake) of dangling cash as an incentive to cripple, Williams hasn’t been honest, at least when asked about bounties in New Orleans and most likely when asked about bounties elsewhere.

Williams both broke the rules and lied to conceal it. Given the underlying nature of the violation, the NFL can’t afford to keep him employed, not at a time when safety has become such a priority.

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Benson’s loyalty to Loomis seems odd

Posted by Mike Florio on March 3, 2012, 9:44 PM EST

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As it relates to Saints G.M. Mickey Loomis, the most troubling aspect of the league’s announcement regarding the team’s bounty system comes in two sentences: “Mr. Benson advised league staff that he had directed his general manager, Mickey Loomis, to ensure that any bounty program be discontinued immediately. The evidence showed that Mr. Loomis did not carry out Mr. Benson’s directions.”

In any other business, operating in any other industry, Benson’s next step would have been to fire Loomis, with cause. No severance pay, no notice. Benson gave Loomis a direct order to ensure that the team wasn’t engaged in a Cobra Kai-style program that blatantly violated the rules, if not the law.

And Loomis defied Benson.

But Benson didn’t fire Loomis. Jay Glazer of FOX reports that neither Loomis nor coach Sean Payton will be fired by Benson.

It’s possibly not the first time Loomis lied to Benson. Former Saints director of security Geoffrey Santini alleged in connection with his wrongful termination lawsuit against the team that Loomis lied to Benson regarding Payton’s involvement in unauthorized Vicodin use. In that case, Loomis supposedly was protecting Payton.

In this case, it’s hard not to wonder whether Loomis is protecting Benson.

The league’s announcement emphasizes that Benson didn’t know about the bounty program. But what if Benson actually knew? Would he admit it, or would the Saints concoct a plan to insulate Benson, in the same way that Loomis allegedly tried to insulate Payton regarding the Vicodin fiasco?

Under this theory (and it’s only a theory), Loomis would take the fall and Benson’s hands would remain clean.

Of course, it wouldn’t be right to fire Loomis under those circumstances. It also would be risky. If Loomis were fired after taking responsibility for something he actually didn’t do, Loomis easily could spill the beans.

I need to be clear on this. There’s no evidence that Benson knew about the bounty program, or that Loomis and Benson came up with an explanation that protected Benson while throwing Loomis onto the fleur-de-lis.

Other than, of course, the bizarre reality that Benson won’t fire Loomis, even though Loomis blatantly defied Benson on such a critical matter.