What Penalties will New Orleans Saints Face for Bounty Incentives?

Bounty programs are nothing new in the NFL. In fact, they’re so common — and so prohibited — that the NFL sends out a memo every year to teams reminding them of the fact that they are completely illegal and any teams participating in them will be heavily penalized. Those penalties can differ and are at the discretion of the NFL; but it’s something the New Orleans Saints are about to find out.

Late last week the NFL announced that they had discovered the Saints had a bounty program in place for the last three years, and that it was in place during the 2009 season when the Saints won the Super Bowl. That year, the bounty program was especially notable as major bounties were placed on Brett Favre and Kurt Warner, taking Favre out of the game and Warner out of football altogether. In January 2010, just days after Warner received a massive hit from the New Orleans defense in a game, he announced his retirement. While Warner has not yet commented on the program, Brett Favre made the forgiving statement of, “I’m not pissed. It’s football. I don’t think anything less of those guys.” That might be easier to say when you were able to continue on with your career afterwards.

Incentive programs and “non-contract bonuses” can often be found around the NFL, but they often only reward players for performance, not actually injuring opposing other players, much less ending their careers altogether. During the 2009 NFC Championship game, sources say that Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma offered $10,000 to any player that could take Favre out of the game. The total amount for that year offered to the Saints defensive team reached a total of $50,000 with $1,500 being offered for “knockouts,” when the player was knocked out of the game; and $1,000 for “cart-offs,” when the opposing player had to be carried off the field.

Now that the investigation is done and results have been found, what does this mean for the Saints? It definitely means that they’re going to be penalized, and probably pretty harshly.

At the very least, the Saints will probably have to forfeit their top draft picks in the 2013 draft, and a number of now and then-Saints officials can expect to face some pretty serious fines and suspensions. Head coach Sean Payton will, at the very least, receive a fine probably somewhere in the area of $250,000; there are also rumours that he could also receive a full year’s suspension. The defensive coordinator of the Saints at the time, Gregg Williams who has now gone to the St. Louis Rams, will also receive a similar fine, and it’s also being said that he could be looking at the same suspension as Payton.

In addition to that, many of the Saints players could face fines and penalties of their own, and not just within the league. This is a matter that could actually go to civil court, should Kurt Warner decide to press charges. It’s most likely it won’t come to anything that severe, but penalties are going to be dealt, and the NFL is not likely to hold back on this one.

Both Williams and Payton will meet with the NFL today, when it will be determined exactly what the punishments will be for the Saints’ highly illegal bounty program.

Categorized in: NFL