The Ginger Hammer Comes Down Hard on Taints Players for Bountygate
NFL.com – New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma has been suspended for the 2012 season, as the NFL handed down its player discipline Wednesday for the Saints’ pay-for-performance “bounty” scandal… Three other players — Scott Fujita, Anthony Hargrove, Will Smith — in addition to Vilma were notified that they have been suspended without pay for conduct detrimental to the NFL… The discipline breaks down, per a league release, as follows:
• Linebacker Jonathan Vilma of the Saints is suspended without pay for the 2012 NFL season, effective immediately per league policy for season-long suspensions.
• Linebacker Scott Fujita (now with the Cleveland Browns) is suspended without pay for the first three games.
• Defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove (now with the Green Bay Packers) is suspended without pay for the first eight games.
• Will Smith of the Saints is suspended without pay for the first four games.
Please, Ginger Hammer, don’t hurt ‘em! Wow, this pretty much proves the point I’ve been making all along that Bountygate is the biggest scandal to hit the NFL in our lifetimes. Nothing else even comes close [tips a glance in John Harbaugh's direction]. I mean, you could try to make a case for Art Schlichter since he got banned for life, but he was just one guy. This, plus the suspension of the coaches, proves the Taints were involved in a vast conspiracy that went all the way to the top. And if this many guys are taking the fall for it, you know there have to be lots more that just didn’t get caught in the commissioner’s dragnet. And I have to applaud Goodell for doing the right thing here.
The problem is you can’t even broach this subject without some internet cowboy or phony talk radio tough guy saying this is just another example of the pussification of the NFL and how they’re turning it into flag football and why don’t we start putting dresses on them blah, blah, blah. When the truth is NO ONE wants to take the hitting out of football. No one wants to put dresses on players. (Not even Lingerie League players. Especially not Lingerie League players. But the fact is, you can’t have players paying each other to cheap shot others out of games. Maybe that worked with the ’70s Raiders or the ’90s Cowboys or whatever, but the game needs to evolve. Players are huger, stronger and faster than they ever were. It’s sped up and gotten dangerous beyond anything anyone could’ve imagined 30 years ago. Dick Butkus was arguably the most dominant hitter in football history. Compared to his contemporaries he looked like a man among boys. And he was 6-3, 245. Jake Bequette, a middling prospect the Pats took with the 90th pick a week ago, is 6-5 1/2, 280. You can no sooner turn these loose unchecked to destroy each other, or use Leather-Helmet-Day-Rules any more than you can drive a BMW with Model T seatbelts or send guys into a 2012 battlefield wearing medieval armor.
But the major point is that suspending these guys isn’t destroying the game, it’s saving it. The NFL has tort lawyers coming at if from all directions like ninjas. There are actually crusading buttinskis out there saying it’s time to start thinking about banning tackle football altogether like it’s greyhound racing or something. So while all decent, right-thinking Americans are for keeping the hard hits and clean contact in football, Jonathan Vilma and these other miscreants picked the wrong goddamned decade to run a “Cash for Concussions” program. @JerryThornton1
Love ur work Big Jer but i jus dont get when a writer/blogger talks about the “internet tough guys”. In essence, at times, isnt that what every writer for Barstool is? I mean ive heard you bash the shit out of plenty of folks. Enlighten me, por favor.
Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!
By “internet tough guys” he meant you Goddy.
I definately think the players and coaches should be punished but to put Vilma and Payton’s punishments in perspective… they got the same punishment Donte Stallworth got for driving drunk and KILLING A PEDESTRIAN. So killing a pedestrian and coaching a team with a bounty program are equal in Goodell’s eyes.
There’s video of Suh doing all sorts of dirty shit yet he’s not suspended a year. Ridiculous.
Oh wow a pinko commie site like “Slate” is promoting banning tackle football, I’m shocked. What next, disband the Marines and outlaw racist/sexist jokes while we’re at it? Fucking pussies.
I love that the taints are getting slammed, and this shit definitely needed to be addressed. But goodell is a hypocrite loser. There was solid concussion evidence 4 years ago and he’s only emphasizing “player safety” to cover his ass. And yet the shithead is pushing for an 18 game regular season, which will cause many more injuries. But hey, it gives that slick fuck more money.
Stin14, yup. Im all kindsa internet hardo. You can always find me in the comments talking about what a great athlete i am and how I will kick the shit out of people. Come on bro, you gotta be a little better than that to make me blush, on he internet. Dick.
True that LSU Stallworth did kill a guy… but he paid the dudes family like 1mil so I guess no big deal? Also Goddy u mad bro?
nah jerry, the penalties have nothing to do with how severe the crime is. there is plenty of evidence that shows that ginger doesnt punish according to the severity of the crime – he just gauges the public perception and then makes a penalty that he thinks will make people happy. because all that goodell cares about or has ever cared about is the perception of safety and not actual safety. otherwise he wouldnt try to make an 18 game schedule when the public has been adamantly against it. otherwise he wouldnt have tried to discredit scientists who said there was a link between concussions and suicide. otherwise he would force the league to wear safer helmets. nope, now he just suspends people so he can say “look at me, i’m cleaning up the game.”
Nah Im good Stin14, Im good. You ahite?
I’m with ya rm81.
Jerry. When will your blog about the NFL finding a way to punish the Patriots for Junior Seau’s suicide be up? How many draft picks do you think will be taken away?
I wish Dro would give us some perspective on this complex debate
good point LSU,, Jerry your a fkn idiot. If you agree with the NFL on these fines you are the pussification of america. So when pres writes a blog on that remember hes talking about people like you.
couple of things… JT- when you use a parenthesis, try using two, not one. Ive noticed it in a couple of your recent blogs its confusing haha. Second, and maybe its just me, but I dont think I’ve read anywhere that they rewarded for cheap hits. It was for them to make big hits on players that knocked them out of the game, cleanly. IDK about that tho.