NFL Levies More Bounty Punishments
By Nick Ostillers
New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma was suspended without pay for the entire 2012 season by the NFL. Vilma was one of four players punished Wednesday for participating in the team's cash-for-hits bounty system.
Defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove, now with the Green Bay Packers, Saints defensive end Will Smith and linebacker Scott Fujita, now with the Cleveland Browns, all received suspensions less than nine games.
The league's statement said Vilma, Hargrove, Smith and Fujita were suspended because of "conduct detrimental to the NFL as a result of their leadership roles" with the bounties.
Several students at Santa Clara voiced their own opinions about the bounty program and suspensions.
"I think they should basically just like kick people out of the league that are doing (stuff) like that," said sophomore Andrew Metzger. "It's dangerous and that's not what football should be about."
Commissioner Goodell has made an effort to emphasize player safety in recent seasons. The NFL is facing dozens of lawsuits brought by more than 1,000 former players who say the league didn't do enough to warn them about - or protect them from - the dangers of concussions.
Fellow sophomore Michael Cunningham, who as a member of Santa Clara's rugby team knows all about physical sports, explained that a line must be drawn.
You have to play with high intensity," said Cunningham, "Not injure people, but when you make a hard hit you're using a lot of physical force. But when you're tying to do things like purposefully dive at people's knees and stuff like that, that's not OK."
An NFL investigation determined that the Saints had a bounty system from 2009-11 that offered thousands of dollars to players for big hits that knocked opponents out of games. "Knockouts" were worth $1,500 and "cart-offs" $1,000, with payments doubled or tripled for the playoffs.
While Saints' Head Coach Sean Payton and former Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams have already been suspended, no players were punished until Wednesday.
All four players have three days to appeal NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's ruling, and the head of the NFL Players Association said the union would fight the penalties. Fujita is a member of the NFLPA's executive committee.
After the NFL announced the players' suspensions, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith issued a statement saying the union "has still not received any detailed or specific evidence from the league of these specific players' involvement in an alleged pay-to-injure program. We have made it clear that punishment without evidence is not fair. We have spoken with our players and their representatives and we will vigorously protect and pursue all options on their behalf."
Cunningham discussed the potential difficulty in assessing a matter like the alleged bounty program.
"It's really a complicated situation because it kind of turns into this 'he-said, she-said' thing," said Cunningham. "It's hard to find evidence behind it because a lot of the evidence behind a bounty program is based on the interaction between coaches and players. There's not a whole lot of legal documents that can back up these kinds of situations."
Fujita, Hargrove and Smith are allowed to participate in offseason activity, including preseason games, before their suspensions take effect. Vilma, though, is suspended immediately and will be reinstated after the coming season's Super Bowl - which, coincidentally, will be played in New Orleans.
Contact Nick Ostiller at nostiller@scu.edu or (408) 554-4852. Howard Fendrich of the Associated Press contributed to this report.