Bountygate Punishment for the Saints

[Monkeydad]

I heard an interesting point on Yahoo Sports Radio this morning. Think it was Chris Russell.

The league said they've been investigating this for 3 years. Gregg Williams was hired by the Rams in January, just two months before his punishment that the league knew about. All coaching hires much be approved by the NFL/Commissioner. They approved his hire by the Rams. Then, they suspended him, leaving the team without a coach.

Sounds EXACTLY like the crap they pulled with our salary cap punishment. They approved the signings, then handed out punishments for the moves they just approved!

It's almost like Goodell is intentionally setting teams up for punishments and it's affecting the teams' offeason plans and ultimately the product they're able to put on the field.

He's out of control. This needs to be stopped. Goodell is acting like a dictator. I don't throw that word around lightly either, but he seems to care more about his power than the product for the fans or even financially.

The Saints DID do wrong and need to be dealt with. I'm not defending him or denying a punishment was appropriate (even though it seems too harsh), but that point about them approving Gregg Williams' hire by the Rams about 9 weeks ago really got me thinking about the league's actual interests/intentions for the teams. Sabotage is starting to look like a possibility. Is this a punishment/power trip for the lockout and negotiations with ownership? The league did not get their 18 game schedule so now Goodell is throwing the hammer down on the teams as much as he can? It's in the best interest of the league to be able to field the best teams they possibly can and now Dallas, Washington and New Orleans have been severely hampered in doing so, 3 of the more popular and profitable teams in the league. Is it a ploy to help the smaller markets be more competitive? I don't know but I'm very suspicious. The timing of the punishments and the fact that all of these issues are popping up just a season away from the labor talks makes me wonder.

Also, the Saints will be in the HOF Game...so instead of talking about the HOF inductees, we'll have to listen to talk about bounties and watch their replacement coaches in action. The league should move the Saints out of that game in August (plenty of time) for the sanctity of the weekend which will probably be ruined now.