Thread: Four Saints Players Suspended For BountyGate - Vilma for a year

Wow.

I am surprised that it was this severe against the players.

Four suspended for Saints’ bounty program, Vilma for all of 2012 | ProFootballTalk

Vilma is suspended for a year.
Hargrove (now with the Packers) is suspended for 8 games.
Smith is suspended for four games.
Fujita for three games.

It sounds like Vilma and Hargrove received worse punishments because they tried to obstruct the NFL's investigation or lied about it, which is in line with the reasoning behind the coaching and GM suspensions.

Good. Wish they'd never come back.

They received what they deserved. I have no sympathy for them or their teams. What they did is basically a "pay to injure"

In our world that is illegal and subject to fines and jail terms.

Originally Posted by NDVikingFan66

They received what they deserved. I have no sympathy for them or their teams. What they did is basically a "pay to injure"

In our world that is illegal and subject to fines and jail terms.

and yet the NFLPA is looking at defending them when they put in their inevitable appeals. What a message that sends to the player membership, " we have your interests at heart but are wiling to let some of you target your fellow pros in order to earn a few $$ from a pot "
Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy - not !

They absolutely got what they deserved.

It was fun to watch Hodge and Hasselbeck go at it on ESPN today because Hasselbeck thinks this is too severe and Hodge basically made him look like an idiot. Hodge hit it on the head ... what suspensions like this do is make sure that this shit does not happen again. Period. You can bet your ass that anything like this going on will have COMPLETE separation from coaches and players now, and players will be quicker to report ANYTHING like this to brass in order to not lose a season of their own.

I have no problems with how ANY of this entire situation was handled. There is no place in the game for shit like this.

As a bonus, Hargrove is with the Packers now & the Packers lose him for half the season.

Are they suspended without pay like the coach? It didn't say in the article.

Originally Posted by midgensa

They absolutely got what they deserved.

It was fun to watch Hodge and Hasselbeck go at it on ESPN today because Hasselbeck thinks this is too severe and Hodge basically made him look like an idiot. Hodge hit it on the head ... what suspensions like this do is make sure that this shit does not happen again. Period. You can bet your ass that anything like this going on will have COMPLETE separation from coaches and players now, and players will be quicker to report ANYTHING like this to brass in order to not lose a season of their own.

I have no problems with how ANY of this entire situation was handled. There is no place in the game for shit like this.

No doubt, that was largely the justification for the length of the suspensions. Make sure other players know without a doubt what the league thinks about it. It will change the behavior.

But, it is probably more about making an example out of them then it is trying to fit an appropriate penalty to the crime. I wouldn't be surprised if the lying didn't lengthen the punishment by 2x or more.

I also wouldn't be surprised to see the refs be more active in throwing flags on hits that look malicious.

Originally Posted by tastywaves

I also wouldn't be surprised to see the refs be more active in throwing flags on hits that look malicious.

Had they been doing that in the first place, a lot of this could have been avoided.