NFL Coach Sean Payton Suspended Over Bounties

NFL Coach Sean Payton Suspended Over Bounties

New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton received a shock after the NFL issued unprecedented punishment on Wednesday for bounties paid out on big hits. NFL suspended Payton without pay for next season and indefinitely banning the team's former defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams, who now works for the St. Louis Rams.

Payton is the first ever head coach suspended by NFL for any reason, being accused of covering up a system of extra cash payouts that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell called "particularly unusual and egregious" and "totally unacceptable."

Allegedly, Payton continuously ignored instructions from the NFL and Saints ownership to see to it bounties weren't being paid. The league also chastised him for denying that the program existed.

After the NFL first made its investigation public on March 2, Williams admitted to, and apologized for, running the program while in charge of the Saints' defense from 2009-11. Goodell will review Williams' status and decide whether he can return to the league.

All payouts as per performance in a game, including interceptions are against the rules of NFL, which warns teams against such practices before each season. As a result of the revelations about the Saints, a lot of players from various teams confessed that sort of things happen frequently, although not exactly the same scale as the NFL found.

In a memorandum sent out to the NFL's 32 teams, Goodell instructed owners to make sure their clubs are not doling out bounties now, and that each club's principal owner and head coach must certify in writing by March 30 that no pay-for-performance system exists.

The ball is in the court of The Saints to decide who will coach the team while Payton is barred, whose suspension is effective on April 1.

"No one is above the game or the rules that govern it," Goodell said.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Friday March 23 2012, 1:12 PM EST. Ref: Yahoo. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0