JohnBigBootay: IAmRight: Oh those rascally offensive players, trying to get themselves severe brain trauma in order to portray the gentle Mr. Harrison as a monster!

Harrison has some dirty hits. He's also got some fines for plays that could not reasonably be avoided by a guy doing what he's supposed to be doing that probably would not have been fined if there was a different name on his jersey. You're an NBA fan - you know damn well some guys get calls and some guys don't.

As if IAR is ever going to view anything a Steelers player does with any kind of objectivity.

AdmirableSnackbar: As if IAR is ever going to view anything a Steelers player does with any kind of objectivity.

He will next year when UW's Ta'amu's fat butt is lining up at nose tackle.

Has everyone already forgotten than there was more to this than just players trying to hurt each other?

The bounties circumvented the salary cap. We know this is a big deal to the NFL because of what they did to Dallas and Washington for their behavior during the uncapped year.

Also, there was a cover-up of the program, and it continued for years after Goodell told the team to stop it.

Vilma et al. aren't getting punished for intent to injure nearly as much as for those aspects of the case.

steamingpile: I guess, in the same was as attempted murder and murder charges, its all in if you go through with it..........

Whoops, just realized who I'm dealing with.

Carry on.

mr_a: Would Mr Vilma feel better if he found out that Goodell pocketed a $50K bounty for taking him out for the season?

That would be AWESOME!!!!!

What I love is that a link in the article says the saints were covered for this by signing curtis lofton to a multi year deal, there is a reason the falcons didnt want him any longer, he sucks and couldnt do crap in atlanta.

The lucky issue for the saints is they have an easy first 4 games, well I think they had GB in there one game but the other 3 are definitely winnable even if half the defense was gone, I guess if Brees doesnt hold out they should still be 3-1 at worst.

Slow To Return: steamingpile: I guess, in the same was as attempted murder and murder charges, its all in if you go through with it..........

Whoops, just realized who I'm dealing with.

Carry on.

Its the same thing, intent vs actions, the intent was there he just didnt go through with it, now I admit there was a little sarcasm thrown in there but lets not act like he wasnt trying to separate his head from his body.

IAmRight: That's true. Harrison is just an easy example...

The whole thing is a travesty and goodell's reactionary bullshiat is gonna bite him in the ass. I've said a dozen times that the program was wrong and it had to be stopped. I agree with fines and suspensions but Goodell went too far in an attempt to placate the masses and show that he is 'serious'. I'd feel differently about it if there were some data showing increased player injuries vs the saints. Since this program went on for years that data should be screaming at us if the program actually had any real effect. It didn't, it just sounds bad. Meanwhile, nothing meaningful changes.

This is an important time in NFL land and I think Goddell is screwing the pooch. He's getting all authoritarian and us vs them and players vs management at a time when he should be calling an all-inclusive summit and asking the players and the owners to come together and talking about how they can make their game better and safer. Don't even know if that's possible but ignoring the larger problem ain't gonna fix it. The fact is that players and management need to be getting together right now, not further dividing themselves. Because these lawsuits have the potential to completely fark the owners and the current players but I don't think the current players have realized that yet. They need to wake up - because the money that's gonna pay the lawsuits is money that would have been paid to the players one way or the other. If they think the owners are gonna lose a lot of money without player salaries suffering they ought to go read a history book. They need to realize they are partners but they can't seem to do that.

Oh, and like I said more than two years ago... If goodell had a single brain cell in his head they would collectively bargain fines and player safety issues back to the players and let them police their own. It's their health. How different would all this shiat look now if fines and punishments for stuff like this were governed by a committee of active/former players? He's a damn idiot he didn't already do this. The NFLPA should be the organization fining the players. Then we could see how much they care about the health issue.

IAmRight: I really, really like that idea.

I've been saying that forever. I deal with workers comp claims at work. If you want safety to get better, you make the workers at risk responsible for it. Form a safety committee made up of workers, let them decide consequences for violations, and let them police their own. And oh, not only does safety magically improve, it has the potential to reduce liability and improve morale.

mr_a: Would Mr Vilma feel better if he found out that Goodell pocketed a $50K bounty for taking him out for the season?

Nice.

IAmRight: Bonuses for management: the Players Union seems like they become the entity getting sued.

Oh, they already are, they're just too farking stupid to know it yet. The owners' money is the players money of the future. Eventually they will come to understand that the owners aren't some magic pot of money that endlessly renews regardless of what happens to their league. They are partners. If the owners don't make money, the million dollar checks will stop shortly thereafter.

People forget that the current players were just as selfish about paying the old guys as the owners were. They'd best get their shiat together and get together with the owners on this thing.

he broke the rules and now he and the other should accept their suspensions like men, admit to what they did and apologize and they will come out looking better than they could in any other course of action.

JohnBigBootay: People forget that the current players were just as selfish about paying the old guys as the owners were

I dont think anyone forgets that, its why nobody supported the players union when they were striking, lets take a ton of money for ourselves with none to the players who built the league?!?!?!?

steamingpile: I dont think anyone forgets that, its why nobody supported the players union when they were striking, lets take a ton of money for ourselves with none to the players who built the league?!?!?!?

I guess that's why people have been writing about greed for a couple thousand years. It's like water, give it long enough and it will eventually fark up everything.

/ dumbasses.

JohnBigBootay: steamingpile: I dont think anyone forgets that, its why nobody supported the players union when they were striking, lets take a ton of money for ourselves with none to the players who built the league?!?!?!?

I guess that's why people have been writing about greed for a couple thousand years. It's like water, give it long enough and it will eventually fark up everything.

/ dumbasses.

And you know what? If they would have said, lets keep our payout the same percentage but lets take some of the percentage the owners make and give it to help the older players I would have supported the players.

Given everything else he has done, why are people surprised that Vilma is also a liar?

robsul82: /also love

Saints have a pervasive cheating mentality

IAmRight: Sure. But if the owners can push off all the responsibility, then they can still keep the league, just get new players.

Well, they can't push off all responsibility. But they damn sure ought to share it with they guys who put their necks on the line. It would soften the adversarial nature of the whole thing and hopefully make them realize they are partners. I'm not sure any of those dumbasses realize what kind of risky position they are in with the public right now. Another suicide and the public turns against them ain't nobody gonna be cashing any checks for long. That's somewhat alarmist of course but it's a crazy world. They'd best get out in front of it as a unified group but no one is thinking ahead far enough - they just want to make sure they protect their slice. Which won't be worth squat if there's no pie.

robsul82: Another suicide provided it's right on top of this one. Enough of a gap in the timeframe? People will just go along with their business.

Sure. Depends on who and when of course. Woe be unto the NFL if a white dude that everyone loved offs himself in the next few weeks. It would take about six minutes before some enterprising congressperson expecting a tough battle in November decided we need to open congressional hearings and start trotting out a bunch of slobbering, crippled former NFL greats on c-span all day long. At this point I'll be surprised if that does not happen in the coming months.

To me, the best analogy is not with cars or crimes as suggested earlier. It is with US military ethics. Troops deployed in a conflict can and do kill and injure opponents, but there are rules in place that attempt to keep that behavior under at least some control. Like football players, the ground troops are young men who are required to walk a very fine ethical line in the discharge of their duties.

Now some lieutenant (Williams) tells his men, "Hey, I'm paying $100 per enemy scalp!" and a sergeant under him (Vilma) says "Yeah, and I'll throw in another $20 for each". The obvious problem here is that this pushes the troops towards the wrong side of that fine ethical line and encourages excessive brutality. Both lieutenant and sergeant would rightly be up for court-martial and probably given dishonorable discharges (if not jail time).

Do do less is to just wink at military ethics, and you wind up with an armed mob instead of an army.

robsul82: If this scandal has shown one thing, it's that Farkers should lay off analogies.

That wasn't a bad one. And I think all agree that Williams and Vilma misbehaved. But from my persepective the breadth and scale of the punishments have just been completely unfair and out of scale. It's basically just Goodell saying, 'hey, look over here! Don't look at Duerson and (now) Seau and NFL life expectancy and CTE! Because we care and we are serious. The NFL has a huge and growing problem on his hands. And he's spending all his energy on band-aids that have the appearance of him doing something. It does nothing to address the much larger issue which of course the saints have absolutely nothing to do with.

To sum up, another bad analogy. The woods behind NFL headquarters are completely ablaze. Meanwhile, Goodell is consumed with putting out a fire in his ash tray.

IAmRight: Fade2black: Almost as insane as trying to possibly end other players' careers in a single play huh? Yeah 10% seems a bit harsh for trying to maim someone for life. He's got his alimony and 50k a month child support to worry about.

It's weird how you consistently know nothing about sports and just interject your stupidity and racism into a bunch of threads as though you think your opinion is worth anyone's time.

/$5 for the first mod that bans you for life
//hey, I don't make NFL money

I know quite a bit about sports, and pointing out statistical trends doesn't make me a racist, I just choose to absolve myself of political correct herpaderp when it comes to a few bad apple football players.

And I'll pay the 5 bucks for you, where is the latte tip jar at?

Have they announced Harrison's punishment yet?

muck4doo: Have they announced Harrison's punishment yet?

Yeah. He turns 34 this week and will be out of the league in a couple more years. Hopefully to enjoy a long retirement but chances are he'll shoot himself in the chest in 2021.

JohnBigBootay: That wasn't a bad one. And I think all agree that Williams and Vilma misbehaved. But from my persepective the breadth and scale of the punishments have just been completely unfair and out of scale. It's basically just Goodell saying, 'hey, look over here! Don't look at Duerson and (now) Seau and NFL life expectancy and CTE! Because we care and we are serious. The NFL has a huge and growing problem on his hands. And he's spending all his energy on band-aids that have the appearance of him doing something. It does nothing to address the much larger issue which of course the saints have absolutely nothing to do with.

The military one was the best, I was being over the top and trollerific for robsuls sake because even though I cant see his posts I know he fumes and I chuckle when I see others quote him, quoting me.......

Again, I have thought all along they were going to come down hard on the saints because of the timing, nothing else. Lawsuits, players suicides, and the game being more violent than ever, its a perfect storm for over reaction which is why the long suspensions, if they have that much proof why not just ban vilma? I have now started to think williams has dimed these guys out to have his suspension lessened, it makes sense, its a minimal games missed for them and it may lead to him getting back in a year.

There is an easy way to fix the problem though, LEATHER HELMETS!

That or just suspend anyone that hits a player in the head for a year, one appeal heard the week after the game, if thats upheld you are gone for a year, you can bet those hits will stop over night and the players will just go back to aiming for their knees like god intended when he invented foosball.