With the revelation of the “bounty” program promoted by current St.
Louis Rams’ defensive coordinator Greg Williams during his stints with the New Orleans Saints and Washington Redskins,
all eyes are on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as he tries to figure out a
punishment to fit the crime.
The Saints will be punished as expected but is that enough? I
mean look at what kind of example Williams set for his players both in Washington
and in New Orleans. Will there be players who will receive punishments
retroactively and how about the man who is at the center of this scandal?
It will be hard to punish players retroactively seeing that
some of the players who participated in the bounty system are no longer in the
league. Still that doesn’t excuse Greg Williams aka Don Corleone who issued
those “hits” on opposing teams’ players.
Williams’ actions should have Ndamukong Suh, James Harrison-like
ramifications. Suh’s fines and suspension cost him over $200,000 dollars. Harrison’s
fines cost him $125,000 and with his one-game suspension for being a repeat
offender back in December his total is around the $200K mark also.
Williams should get fined for every fine any one of the
players under him received during the period his bounty system was in play and
he should also receive a fine for every player one of his defenses knocked out
of a game.
Lastly, he should be suspended from the NFL’s sidelines for
at least a year. I feel he should be suspended a year for every year that it
can be proven he had the system in play but I know that’s not going to happen.
Commissioner Goodell is in a quandary though. If he is too
lenient or refuses to punish Williams at all it’s possible he could face a
backlash by the players who have been penalized under Goodell’s system of
fines.
Goodell will lay the hammer down on the Saints and possibly
the Redskins for allowing Williams to implement the bounty system with their
teams though.
Will that be enough to deter teams in the future? Possibly, but
the best way to ensure that coaches will think twice before doing something
like this again is to hold the coaches responsible and that means laying the
law down on Williams.
Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and is also an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2. He can be contacted at RHall_TPFB@Yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist and add him on Facebook Roosevelt Hall Thesportmentalist.
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