Jonathan Polynice Vilma (born April 16, 1982) is a former American football linebacker and current Fox NFL analyst. [92], NFL Network analyst Michael Lombardi wrote that the scandal happened in part because during Williams' previous stops as a defensive coordinator, the head coaches under which he workedFisher, Joe Gibbs and Paytonessentially ceded him complete authority over the defense. [65] He reiterated this in an interview later that day with ESPN's Schefter, saying that the fact those involved "continued to mislead" the league about it was a significant factor in the sanctions. In addition, the Saints franchise was fined $500,000 and docked second-round picks in the 2012 and 2013 drafts. An @NFL player is injured let's start off by asking Sean Payton, who quite literally had a bounty system to Injure opposing teams players #BountyGate ask me how I know this to be True . 3,000 @ggerould - 10:35 PM. Linebacker Jonathan Vilma was suspended for the entire 2012 season, DL Anthony. [35] On March 4, The Post reported that the NFL was investigating the allegations against Williams with the Redskins. [7][12], Benson issued a statement on the Saints' Website saying, "I have been made aware of the NFLs findings relative to the Bounty Rule and how it relates to our club. On May 2, the league announced the suspension of four players for their leadership roles in the bounty system. By CM Lucas. Instead, he said what some of the evidence was, and the media went to town taking his word for it. The behavior detailed in the report was almost universally condemned in the press. "Knockouts" were worth. Rather, he wrote, they were acting as "part of a larger mentality" instilled by Williams. All Rights Reserved. However, depending on the Saints' cooperation and that of the individuals involved, Goodell could restore the Saints' second-round pick in 2013 (though the Saints would still lose a lower-round pick), as well as reduce the fine on the Saints and restore Payton, Vitt and Loomis' lost pay. He claimed to have several thousand pages of evidence of this, but refused to show it to anyone. [47] The NFLPA asked the league to delay any sanctions until the union could conduct its own investigation. Four National Football League (NFL) players who played for the New Orleans Saints between 2009 and 2011 were suspended by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for their alleged participation in a pay-for-injury program, in a saga that became known as "Bountygate." The ensuing appeals process and legal . The whole organization was fined $500,000, and they lost several draft picks. In an interview with NFL Network's Rich Eisen, Goodell said that the threat to player safety, as well as the fact the Saints lied about it, demanded significant punishment. NFLPA files suit in Bountygate case July 5, 2012 foxsports The NFL Players Association filed a lawsuit against the NFL on behalf of three players suspended in connection with the bounty. I ask that you and ESPN report the facts. "You have to be accountable and responsible in the NFL," Goodell said. Payton was asked about the possible misdeed; he was suspended for the entire 2012 season for his involvement in the Saints' "Bountygate" scheme in which players were paid for injuring opponents. The Saints also lied to the NFL over the past two years when an investigation was being conducted, so the punishment does seem to fit the crime. However, they didn't agree on whether there were rewards for intentionally injuring players. While Dungy did not speculate at the time about whether the Redskins targeted Manning on that play, he believes that hit ultimately caused the neck problems that sidelined Manning for the entire 2011 season and led to his departure for the Denver Broncos afterward. Late in the 2011 season, the NFL received what it called "significant and credible new information" that suggested there was indeed a "bounty" program in place. The plotline begins in 2012, when Payton is suspended for the season by commissioner Roger Goodell for the Saints' bounty scandal, which gives Payton the chance to re-assess his life and put it in . Roger Goodell announces Wednesday that Saints coach Sean Payton will be suspended for the 2012 season due to his role in the team's Bountygate scandal. I gave you facts that you can report if so choose. On September 7, 2012, the Burbank appeals panel vacated the suspensions imposed on the four, and the NFL confirmed that the ruling reinstated them in time for their first games of the 2012 season two days later. 2008: Jacksonville Jaguars - Defensive Coordinator [77] Two days after the fifth game of the season, on October 9, 2012, the league re-issued the suspensions without any changes or reductions; the players' appeals continued. Home Team focuses on Sean Payton and his too-good-to-be-true story before he was brought back onto the Saints in the 2013 season. NEW: The NFL Players Association challenges the suspensions, Two of the suspended players are now with different teams, The suspensions are the latest by the NFL in the scandal over bounties, The league previously suspended a coach and a former defensive coordinator. ESPN NFL analyst and former Dallas Cowboys safety Darren Woodson said that much of Williams' speech was standard pregame rhetoric. [12] It initially appeared that Cook's argument was strengthened by the fact that Warner was knocked out of that game with a chest injury (although he later returned), and retired two weeks later. [21] According to that memo, Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma offered $10,000 cash to any teammate who knocked Favre out of the NFC Championship Game. While most will remember Sean Payton for his success with the Saints, his involvement with Bountygate won't be forgotten anytime soon either. [66] Later, Schefter said on ESPN's SportsCenter that league officials felt Payton was at least as guilty as Williams, despite initial focus on Williams' role as the mastermind in the scheme. The New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, widely dubbed " Bountygate ", [1] [2] [3] [4] was an incident in which members of the New Orleans Saints franchise of the NFL were accused of paying out bonuses, or "bounties", for injuring opposing team players. Later, CBSSports.com NFL columnist Clark Judge said several Vikings assistants told him they believed McCray was acting on direct orders from Williams, with at least one being so outraged that he threatened to "punch [Williams] in the face" the next time they met. "[46], On March 3, Fox Sports' Jay Glazer reported that the NFL intended to hand down penalties before the owners' meeting in late March. Pamphilon, who was doing a documentary on Steve Gleason and his fight against Lou Gehrig's Disease, released the audio to Yahoo! One of those interviewed, Junior Seau, bluntly said that such practices crossed the line into threatening a person's livelihood. 2009-11: New Orleans Saints - Defensive Coordinator An @NFL player is injured let's start off by asking Sean Payton, who quite literally had a bounty system to Injure opposing teams players #BountyGate ask me how I know this to be True " Bold strategy by fox. Bountygate was alleged to have taken place from 2009 to 2011. But I would be shocked, that'll be something that gets tucked away or under the . Since the NFL unveiled its findings, Williams has been accused of running similar bounty programs during his coaching stints with the Titans, Redskins and Bills. April 15 - Payton holds his first team meeting at . [16] Cerullo is currently director of football operations at Princeton University.[17]. Here's an explanation of "Bountygate," Payton's suspension and his brief youth football career that led to a Netflix biopic. It also asserted that head coach Sean Payton tried to cover up the scheme, and that he and general manager Mickey Loomis failed to shut it down when ordered to do so by team owner Tom Benson. In the wake of the NFL BountyGate investigation involving the Saints, Rex Ryan denied that he has ever used bounties during his career. A year later, former commissioner Paul Tagliabuewould vacate the suspensions of those Saints' players on appeal. [20][27], Several Chicago Bears players and fans believe that the Bears were targets of this program during the second game of the 2011 season, a 3013 loss to the Saints. On May 2, 2012, four current and former Saints players were suspended after being named as ringleaders in the scandal, with linebacker Jonathan Vilma being suspended for the entire 2012 seasonthe longest suspension for an on-field incident in modern NFL history. I have learned a hard lesson and I guarantee that I will never participate in or allow this kind of activity to happen again.. The NFL handed down punishment for the bounties on March 21, 2012. Several other stars, including quarterback Kurt Warner, were on the Saints' radar during a 'Bountygate' scandal between 2009-2011. DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association, said the organization would help the players fight the suspensions. I got the first one. We have made it clear that punishment without evidence is not fair. [85] (Seau would commit suicide less than two months after the interview was published; it was discovered after his death that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) as a result of the numerous head injuries Seau suffered during his 20-year NFL career. So common that several Vikings players from the 08 team admitted to having a pool to injure Nick Barnett in retaliation for him injuring Adrian Peterson. Judges only have limited jurisdiction over arbitration issues. Tuesday, 29 January 2013 By Griffin Finan. [10], Speculation quickly abounded about how severely Goodell, who has made player safety and the overall integrity of the game a point of emphasis during his six years as commissioner, would punish Williams and the Saints. Back in 2012, Payton was suspended from the NFL for a year. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. [13], In the 2010 offseason, an anonymous player told NFL officials that the Saints had targeted Favre and Warner as part of a bounty program administered by Williams; the NFL's security department found the allegations credible enough to open an investigation. [89], The revelation of Williams' pregame speech was also greeted with revulsion. Vilma played the final 11 games of the 2012 season for the Saints; Smith played all 16. At the same time there's a chance a guy's going to hit you, injuries happen, that's part of the game, that's why people are interested in it. However, linebacker Eddie Robinson, who played for Williams in Houston and Tennessee as well as in Buffalo, acknowledged an incentive pool but said he never heard Williams favor deliberately injuring other players. Jack Willis has again left England's training camp early and is set to answer a back-row crisis for Toulouse, giving Steve Borthwick a sizeable selection headache before his side host France on . During the 2010 investigation, Payton told Williams and Vitt to "make sure our ducks are in a row" when the league interviewed them. Four past or present New Orleans Saints players were suspended Wednesday by the National Football League for their roles in the "bountygate" scandal involving bonuses for trying to hurt. Payton turned a Saints team, which was one of the worst in the league, into one of the best teams and organizations in the NFL. Roger Goodell's strict penalties for player misbehavior, and foul play on the field, haven't made him the most popular guy among NFL players. Discovery Company. )[86] Seau's sentiments were echoed by Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton. [16] Cerullo testified that he kept track of payments and pledges made. "They are on the field, so I don't think they are absolved from any responsibility because of that," he said. [78], On October 27, 2012, former league commissioner Paul Tagliabue postponed the bounty appeals hearing,[79] expecting to set a new schedule on October 29, 2012. Matt George @ MattGeorgeSAC. The Saints appealed the suspensions of Payton, Loomis and Vitt, but the NFL upheld the suspensions. Story , Roger Goodell and the NFL have made a scapegoat out of Jonathan Vilma with his one-year ban. As a result, he went to Texas to coach his son's youth football team. Ive said this before, I take a look at all these high school programs, little league programs, college programs and you see the decals on the side of the helmet and you wonder, you get those decals because you shake hands and kiss after the game or you get those decals because you rushed for 100 and you threw 17 touchdown passes and you knocked the stuffing out of somebody? However, of all coaches to have serious scandals tarnish their . "[30][31], However, on July 26, 2012, Vilma and seven witnesses from the Saints testified in front of a federal judge in New Orleans that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell got his facts wrong in the bounty scandal. "Josh Freeman says Tampa Bay Buccaneers were warned about New Orleans Saints' 'cheap shots'". The Vikings were particularly angered when Saints defensive end Bobby McCray and defensive tackle Remi Ayodele knocked Favre to the ground with a high-low hit. Of course, almost every detail of Bountygate is quickly dispensed or ignored, including the fact that it was reportedly taking place during that 2010 season. He also believed that Goodell was going to use the scandal to "end the practice of bounty football forever," much like the penalties imposed against the Patriots after "Spygate" effectively ended the longstanding practice of illicit videotaping. The New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, colloquially known as "Bountygate,"[1][2][3][4] was an incident in which members of the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL) were accused of paying out bonuses, or "bounties," for injuring players on opposing teams. I ask that you and ESPN report the facts. [72], Earlier, Goodell had indicated that he was going to come down hard on the players involved, telling Eisen that they "enthusiastically embraced" the scheme. BREAKING NEWS MANCHESTER UNITED: Ten Hag will make changes in the FA Cup. But what people . The Saints won the Super Bowl XLIV in 2009. Injuries caused him to miss a number of games in that first season, including the playoffs. Hargrove lied to league officials during the 2010 investigation, but later signed a letter to the NFL admitting that he was an active participant in the scheme. Unsurprisingly, Walton was the top pick overall for the 1974 NBA draft, snagged by the Portland Trailblazers. It added to my interest in the WBC for sure. [73], The NFLPA released a statement calling the suspensions unjustified, claiming that Goodell had not furnished them with any evidence supporting the sanctions. Hargrove actively participated in the program as a Saint and obstructed the leagues investigation by being untruthful, the statement said, while Fujita pledged a significant amount of money to the program. "This is something that is being handled by the NFL office . 'Of course, yesterday, the players were still enthusiastic, and they had to celebrate this momentum. He is beloved by the city of New Orleans and will probably be a folk hero in that area for the rest of his life. [37] Ruben Brown, a guard for the Bills during Williams's time as coach there, denied there was any sort of bounty system in place in Buffalo,[38] a position reiterated by linebacker London Fletcher and then-general manager Tom Donahoe. Please logout and login again. After the program was reported on, Payton and Loomis said they took full responsibility for the practice, which they said happened under our watch.. According to the AP, the NFLPA has told the players involved in the case that they could face criminal charges and that the union has hired . Williams said that he knew all along the slush fund broke the rules, and that "I should have stopped it" rather than get further involved. Multiple independent sources also confirmed that Vilma offered a specific bounty $10,000 in cash to any player who knocked Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner out of the 2009 Divisional Playoff Game and later pledged the same amount to anyone who knocked Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre out of the 2009 NFC Championship Game the following week, the statement said. Players usually earned $1,000 for cart-offs and $1,500 for knockouts during the regular season, though they were encouraged to put their winnings back into the pot in order to raise the stakes as the season went on. [18] Freeman wrote that his sources in the league office had told him that the players, Williams, Payton and Loomis would all face suspensions of at least six games, as well as heavy fines. He also argued that Goodell would have no choice but to come down hard on the Saints, given that the league was facing numerous lawsuits brought by former players who suffered head injuries. I remember over at Excelsior Springs when Im 16 years old I had a big hit in a ballgame and all of a sudden I got a movie certificate and it wasnt because I helped the guy up, its because I knocked the guy down.
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