When the NFL came down on Sean Payton, Mickey Loomis and Gregg Williams for bountygate, our first impression was that it felt a bit harsh although it was completely deserved. I never got the impression that these guys taught their players to be dirty as much as they preached it in pregame. Now that might be a very thin line and honestly I don't care that much (except for the fact I recently traded for Drew Breese on my DCup Winning Fantasy Football team and his value may take a hit without Payton) so at the end of the day I thought it was what the NFL had to do to in anticipation for 1000's of lawsuits they are likely to face in the next few decades from former players with lasting effects of head-injuries.
Today Roger Goodell doubled down and suspended Jonathan Vilma who was the ring-leader inside the locker room along with a couple of other guys most of whom actually don't play on the Saints anymore including Anthony Hargrove (now on the Packers), Scott Fujita (now on the Browns) and Will Smith (now staring in M2BIII not to be confused with former Cowboys running back).. The issue I that Goodell waited until after the draft to suspend these guys. Obviously they were all suspensions that were at least expected, NFL teams spend an entire year preparing for the draft and not having this information in stone before the draft could really alter the way a team approaches it. That may be a fine punishment for Vilma and Smith who still play on the Saints since it happened on the watch of that team's administration but for Fujita and Hargrove giving the Packers and the Browns a little notice would have seemed more than fair. Then again the Packers probably figured it out before hand and had their draft-board adjusted accordingly and really the Browns can't get out of their own way so it probably wouldn't have mattered much.
The person who is probably saddest is Colt McCoy because had the Browns known they lost Fujita they probably would have passed on the geriatric QB and drafted defense with that pick…
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