Bounties: Too high or too little a price for the Saints?

In the NFL today, player safety is the number one priority. Rodger Goodell made that point clear today when he brought the hammer down on the New Orleans Saints by taking away two second round draft picks, fining them $500k, and suspending their GM and head coach, the latter for an entire season! The defensive coordinator for the St. Louis Rams, Greg Williams, who was the defensive coordinator for the Saints when these actions occured, is suspended indefinitely and is up for review after the 2012 season. This seems like a harsh punishment in professional sports today. But is it harsh enough? Let’s look at what happened in this whole scandal.

The Saints were at the time, placing bounties on players of the opposing teams. This means that if a defensive player for the Saints hurt another player during the course of the game, they would essentially receive a bonus from the defensive coach or one of the defensive captains. Captains on the Saints even said specific players were worth more money than others including Brett Favre, Kurt Warner, Cam Newton and Aaron Rodgers just to name a few.  He was willing to fork out $10,000 of his own money just to see these players hurt and out of the game.There are at least two future hall of fame quarterbacks on this small list alone, not to mention the other players that may have been targeted but not named. Many times they succeeded at hurting other players. Those two hall of fame QBs did leave the game with injuries and ultimately Kurt Warner retired because of them. When you start to look at the big picture, this is not just about football anymore; this is about the players lives. Not only do you affect the player, but you hurt their family and people close to them. If a player is forced to quit because of this injury, they cannot support their family anymore. This is how they make a living. Not to mention the medical bills that would later come after. A whole franchise, maybe even a whole city could have been deflated because of these actions.

I think the NFL was too lenient on this case. There should have been a lot more money forfeited by New Orleans and an entire draft class gone. The Super Bowl they won while these events were taking place should be stripped from them. Greg Williams should never be able to coach in the NFL again and the players involved should be given suspensions; which many will in the near future.

Yes I understand this is football and injuries do happen. Yet, when people are playing the game just to hurt people it is not a game anymore. I can’t imagine how sick minded a person would have to be in order to be involved with these events.

NCAA Bracket 2012

South Region

West Region

East Region

Midwest Region

Final 4 and Champion

Mid-Season Predictions: NBA

NBA Playoffs

Favorites:

My favorites this year are the Miami heat, Chicago Bulls, and the Oklahoma City Thunder in that order. Each of these teams is in the top of their conference. The Bulls are the most complete team of this group, yet they are the least dangerous it seems. The Thunder basically only has two, maybe three dominate players that can score the basketball and when they have an off night it spells disaster. Without the transition game, it becomes very difficult for the Thunder to do anything. The Heat play great defense and have three of the biggest names in sports right now. Don’t be surprised to see any of these teams in the finals.

Bubble Teams:

These teams have the potential to shake things up a bit once the playoffs come around. The Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, L.A. Lakers, and L.A. Clippers are the teams that aren’t considered the best that everyone should be afraid of. The Celtics, Spurs, and Lakers all have something that cannot be replaced: experience. In the playoffs this is big. All are solid teams and play great defense. Don’t count them out because they are old. One can’t rule out any team that a healthy Kobe Bryant is on either. The Clippers are the young guns of the NBA. Four months ago, no one was even considering them to make the playoffs, let alone a title. The Clippers only can go up. They are just playing pickup ball on their opponents; imagine when they get some real chemistry going between all of them.

Teams to Rule Out:

The New York Knicks and Houston Rockets. These teams are young and just coming together. The Knicks are a great team; they just can’t get over the hump that great defenses pose against them with Jeremy Lin at point guard. Maybe in a year or two they will be at the top of the division. The Rockets are just too average. They are a solid team, but the way the playoffs are starting to shape up, they will play the Thunder in the first round.

It is all about match ups and even with the teams listed above we have to take that into account.

LeBron's "Leap" Year

When we look at the best players in the NBA who do we look at? Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Shaq, Dirk Nowitzki, Wilt Chamberlin, Larry Bird, LeBron James. Now why LeBron James? Everyone else on this list has at least one ring. “The Chosen One”, “The King”; are just a few of the nicknames he has. All these players were not afraid to take the big shot, but consistently throughout his career, James has passed up this shot and given it to one of the roll players on the team. This is his year to step up and silence his critics. He is a great team player when he wants to be, and now he has a team that fits him in the best way possible. It is the Heat’s year to win it all if they don’t get hurt. Only they can stop themselves. This is LeBron’s year to take the next step to be with the likes of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. The stars have aligned for LeBron and they are all his for the taking if he wishes.