tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14958936386303013582024-03-06T02:24:18.347-06:00SaintsWin: Opinion & CommentaryRNGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15454914019710186588noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1495893638630301358.post-3374342184752755502013-03-21T08:58:00.000-05:002013-04-18T22:41:00.518-05:00Book Update #2My Saints/Bountygate book is now available for purchase.<br />
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Available in <a href="https://www.createspace.com/4234213" target="_blank">paperback here</a>.<br />
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Available for Kindle at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BY61RCO" target="_blank">Amazon here</a>.<br />
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Available for iBooks, Nook and virtually every other e-reader at <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/297944" target="_blank">Smashwords here</a>.<br />
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Also available directly through Apple, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers.<br />
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Here's a quick overview of the book:<br />
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<b><u>Of Bread and Circuses</u></b></div>
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<i>The Story of Bountygate and the 2012 New Orleans Saints</i><br />
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<u>Abstract</u></div>
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<i>Of Bread and Circuses: The Story of Bountygate and the 2012 New Orleans Saints (OBAC)</i> chronicles the New Orleans Saints' 2012 calendar year, and examines the events of Bountygate in detail. </div>
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From a crushing January 2012 playoff loss in San Francisco to Sean Payton's reinstatement a year later, the Saints weaved their way through one of the strangest years in the history of professional sports.</div>
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<i>OBAC</i> revisits the happenings of the Saints' 2012 calendar year; traces the roots of Bountygate; analyzes the saga's many distortions and misconceptions; offers a wider context for the events in question; and theorizes on the scandal's legacy.</div>
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<u>Table of Contents</u></div>
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> Introduction </div>
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1. A Defensive Makeover</div>
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2. March 2, 2012: The Arrival of Bountygate</div>
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3. The Football World Reacts</div>
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4. Saints’ Coaches, Organization Punished</div>
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5. The Brees’ Negotiations</div>
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6. The Parcells’ Flirtation</div>
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7. “Kill the Head”</div>
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8. The Wiretapping Allegations</div>
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9. Conduct Detrimental </div>
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10. Challenging the Franchise Tag Designation</div>
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11. Examining the Bountygate Evidence</div>
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12. “Pure Fantasy” – or – “What The Hell Are You Doing, Roger?” </div>
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13. Mike Cerullo: The Disgruntled Whistleblower</div>
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14. An Investigation and an Induction</div>
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15. Holding Court</div>
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16. Dueling Declarations</div>
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17. A Historic Night</div>
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18. “A Big Sham”</div>
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19. A Recusal, a Revelation, and a Rivalry</div>
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20. Peak and Valley</div>
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21. The Tagliabue Ruling</div>
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22. Looming Infamy</div>
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The Legacy of Bountygate</div>
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· The NFL’s Motives</div>
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· Roger Goodell’s Credibility</div>
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· Why The Saints? </div>
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· A Final Word</div>
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> Coda: Sean Payton, A Second Act<br />
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<u>Cover Art</u><br />
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RNGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15454914019710186588noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1495893638630301358.post-90028415230905284122013-03-06T12:13:00.004-06:002013-03-06T12:13:53.756-06:00Book UpdateSince the beginning of the year, I've been working on a book manuscript about the Saints' 2012 season and BountyGate.<br />
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I've finished the manuscript and completed two revisions of the book. I hope to have it published soon.<br />
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With that said, I know absolutely nothing about the publishing process, so there's still plenty of work to be done before this thing is truly finished.<br />
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But now that the book itself is mostly done, I'm going to figure out the best way to make it available as quickly as possible. When the publishing process is underway, I'll likely post a few excerpts here. <br />
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Once I have more information to share, I will post it.RNGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15454914019710186588noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1495893638630301358.post-40388413725204064862012-06-06T06:32:00.008-05:002022-10-18T12:23:24.905-05:00The Distorting Language of BountyGate<span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he latest revelation from BountyGate came Tuesday in the form of Scott Shanle's interview with the media after the Saints' mini-camp practice. Here's the important part via the <a href="http://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/2012/06/new_orleans_saints_linebacker_33.html#incart_flyout_sports" target="_blank">T/P's Mike Triplett</a>:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"><i>"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">The Saints did have a pay-for-performance program, which included payouts in the range of $500 and $1,000 for a variety of big plays, including big hits. And those hits were sometimes referred to as "cart-offs" or "knockouts" when players were injured. But Shanle said that didn't mean the intent or purpose of the pay-for-performance system was to target players for injuries ...</span></i></span></span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;"><i>'Gregg said crazy stuff,' Shanle said. 'If you take him literally, you're gonna be locked up. But he was the best motivator I've ever been around.' ...</i></span></span></span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"><i style="color: #b45f06;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">[Shanle] said players would lose money just as easily as gaining money, thanks to fines for penalties and mental errors. So penalties or illegal hits were actually discouraged.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">"</span></span></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vQcvqrljDi8/T86ySKFwiHI/AAAAAAAAAfw/rNVqqTjJ4bw/s1600/shanle.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vQcvqrljDi8/T86ySKFwiHI/AAAAAAAAAfw/rNVqqTjJ4bw/s1600/shanle.jpg" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">As of now, this appears to be the most clear-cut and concrete evidence produced. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">It's an on-record statement from a Saints' player detailing the realities involving a program that rewarded Saints' defenders. It's not a mischaracterized memo from one of the NFL's dubious sources nor is it a polemical retort from the NFLPA. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">When you strip away everything else and focus solely on the language employed by Shanle, it's documented that Saints' defenders were, at times, rewarded when (if?) opponents were injured--whether that be for a play, a series, a quarter, a game or more, we're not certain. </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">Equally important, it's a reiteration that a "bounty" system did not really exist. There's an enormous difference between the rewarding of clean, legal hits that incidentally result in injury, and a systemic program of incentivized malice. </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">Frequently, players knock out their opponents with legal hits and it's an accepted part of the game. <a href="http://www.nfl.com/videos/san-francisco-49ers/09000d5d825fe041/Whitner-hit-causes-fumble" target="_blank">Remember what happened</a> to Pierre Thomas in the divisional playoff game against the 49ers? It was a legal hit that knocked him out of the game, and Donte Whitner incurred no penalty or fine. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">That's not to say that retroactively rewarding a player for producing such an injury is acceptable, but it is to say that defenders league-wide are motivated to deliver legal, crushing hits to their opponents regardless of outcome. And a legal hit that produces injury should not be viewed in the same light as a malicious, illegal hit premeditated for injury, the latter of which the Saints have been repeatedly accused. Yet curiously, we've seen very little--if anything--indicating such. Isolated incidents do not a three-year program make. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">What we're really dealing with here--in the grand scheme of BountyGate--are the larger problems of language, intent, perception, and motivation. On-field activity has long since taken a backseat. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">Specifically, we're dealing with the language of Gregg Williams' program and the NFL's characterization of it; the intent of Saints' defenders; the perceptions and presumptions of guilt generated by bombast and public condemnations; and the motivation of the NFL to insulate itself from further litigation. </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">Language is the crux of the issue over these several fronts, and it controls the sequence of events. Had the Saints used the term "game-changing plays" instead of "knock-outs and cart-offs," where might we be today with the absence of corroborating on-field evidence? Would the NFL have been in the position to undertake such drastic action as it did? </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">Replace the widely-publicized term "bounty program" (the NFL's characterization) with "performance program" (the Saints' internal description) and how does the dispensing of punishments change? How would the change in that terminology alter public perception? </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">Remember, we're not dealing with on-field issues anymore. We're dealing with perceptions. The NFL produced zero on-field evidence of systemic malice (rewarded or otherwise), nor did it punish players for engaging in on-field violence (the players were punished for violating the personal conduct policy). </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">Nowhere was this chasm between rhetoric and action, and the importance assigned each, more clearly distilled than in Williams' <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhnn9kbqQUA" target="_blank">controversial, playoff pre-game speech</a> in January '12. Where Williams' exhortations proved violent and over-the-top, the material result produced on the field fell far short of the rhetoric espoused with the Saints' defense <a href="http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=320114025" target="_blank">incurring no penalties</a> and injuring no opponents. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">No matter to the NFL, when it came to the Saints, the rhetoric became the controlling feature. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">The language of Gregg Williams and the accompanying performance program, though, represented a reality that never existed as presented publicly, yet it provided the NFL a "justified" avenue to satisfy its own ends. After all, if the prevalence of malice existed over three seasons, then why did the NFL not punish the deeds--those specific injurious plays that were supposedly rewarded--as they repeatedly happened on the field? And even if they didn't punish them in real time, then why haven't we seen those plays after the fact? </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">Is it perhaps because Saints' defenders were rewarded for legal, clean hits? Was that the program that actually existed? And almost certainly exists in locker rooms league-wide?</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FX-3zyVX64I/T8636Vb50bI/AAAAAAAAAf8/q9FXEpYPifc/s1600/harrison-brees.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="312" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FX-3zyVX64I/T8636Vb50bI/AAAAAAAAAf8/q9FXEpYPifc/s400/harrison-brees.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">As we've seen consistently under Goodell, misdeeds do not go unnoticed or unpunished. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">Yet in the case of the Saints' defense for three seasons ('09-'11), there was a dearth of on-field discipline from the league</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">Then s</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">eemingly out of nowhere, the Saints were punished for this nefarious system that, to Saints' fans, seemed preposterous. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">W</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">hen--finally--the league last week identified two games from the '09 season as evidence, they <a href="http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/06/01/league-revises-its-ledger-leak/" target="_blank">first got it wrong</a>, then were further debunked not by the credentialed, legitimate media but by <a href="http://www.whodatsocialclub.com/daily-special-june-2-2012/" target="_blank">upstart Saints' bloggers</a> who <a href="http://theangrywhodat.com/2012/06/02/ledger-gate-ok-lets-look-at-the-carolina-game/" target="_blank">did the leg work</a>. Mostly, it was much ado about nothing. At least Mike Florio picked up on it. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">Because of that absence of verifiable malice, the present situation is by and large a result of the language used by both Gregg Williams to motivate and subsequently Roger Goodell to implicate. The NFL took the Saints' language, shaped it with a twist of their own, and spun a tale of damnation that allowed them to present to the world their sudden concern for protecting their players--no matter the NFL's systematic denial of disability claims and no matter the legion of former players suing them. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">Again, it was language and its accompanying perception trumping the truths of verifiable action. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">This was the perfectly ideal storm for the NFL to target a rule-bending franchise with a strained, at best, relationship with Goodell and the league. There were <a href="http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcnorth/post/_/id/39041/saints-shots-at-brett-favre-were-no-secret" target="_blank">allegations by Brad Childress</a> in '09 of a Favre bounty; the <a href="http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-05-04/sports/27063396_1_vicodin-pills-trainer-prescription" target="_blank">vicodin scandal</a>; the <a href="http://deadspin.com/5890499/meet-the-convicted-felon-who-defrauded-the-nfl-made-reggie-bush-ineligible-and-funded-the-saints-bounty-program" target="_blank">association with Ornstein</a>; and the Saints' contempt and <a href="http://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/2012/03/in_bounty_scandal_new_orleans.html" target="_blank">disregard for the league's official media policy</a> among other things. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">Here was a perfect mark asking to be made example of at the precise moment in time when the NFL needed to come out forcefully in favor of player safety. So what happened? </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">A pay-for-performance program that rewarded legal hits that sometimes unintentionally resulted in injury was shaped to portray an institutionalized injury program that incentivized malice. And even though we're still yet to find any on-field evidence of players being knocked out illegally--or the accompanying documentation of Saints' defenders being rewarded for doing so--we're so far along in this convoluted, </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">serpentine </span><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">process that what's done is already done, truth be damned. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oNWPc5W9uiQ/T865nXrJljI/AAAAAAAAAgE/cFR-i-QIuvI/s1600/payton.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="293" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oNWPc5W9uiQ/T865nXrJljI/AAAAAAAAAgE/cFR-i-QIuvI/s400/payton.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">Sean Payton isn't coming back this year, no matter what truth prevails.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">Perception predominated to the extent that the presumption of guilt was, for far too long, the overriding characteristic of this quagmire. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">And that perception enabled Roger Goodell to dispense and uphold unprecedented, punitive action against the Saints. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif" style="line-height: 22px;">It stemmed much less from actions, and more so from words. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">Goodell's goal was to make an example of some team, and the Saints fit the bill. Like the dim, flickering bulb he is, Goodell publicly <a href="http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7993744/roger-goodell-confident-bounties-no-longer-issue-nfl-new-orleans-saints-penalties" target="_blank">admitted as much</a> this past week. As he said, his "<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #b45f06;">actions speak loudly</span></i>" and that was his goal: to manufacture the perception that the NFL truly cares for player safety (which, of course, is bullshit). And which in all likelihood will prove irrelevant when the NFL inevitably ends up in court to face its former players. But no matter to the 2012 Saints. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">The fact that the Saints put themselves in a precarious position by bending rules and alienating the league office does not justify the NFL's medieval sanctions in light of what really happened. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">At this point, it seems extremely doubtful that the NFL will produce reliable, vetted evidence that concretely connects on-field malice with cash rewards. After months, we're yet to see definitive evidence of either. If it was out there, we'd have seen something compelling if not from the NFL, then from journalists and fans who have looked but found little. It's unarguably weak in foundation. It's only strong in rhetoric. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">As such, the NFL simply conflates "pay-for-performance" with "pay-to-injure" and assumes the public at large is too dumb to notice the difference. Which, for the most part, they might just be. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif">No matter the protestations, no matter the injustice, the ship has sailed. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">This was petty theft punished as grand larceny, partly a show of force and partly an act of retribution.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">Luckily, the Saints are uniquely qualified to take on the challenges of unprecedented adversity. If it's anything like 2006, it will be wonderfully memorable. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" face="'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">Bring it on. </span></span>RNGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15454914019710186588noreply@blogger.com4