New Orleans Saints' Bounty Punishment Is Far Too Harsh

The New Orleans Saints' punishment for the bounty scandal was unbelievably too harsh.

Before the news broke today, I imagined that Sean Payton would be suspended for four to eight games at the max, but NFL commissioner Roger Goodell had another thing in mind.

Instead, Goodell not only suspended Payton for a year without pay, but he suspended Saints general manager Mickey Loomis for eight games with a $500,000 fine, fined the Saints $500,000 and stripped the Saints of two second-round picks, per Adam Schefter.

My only response to this is the "No Fun League" strikes once again, and I seriously believe Goodell has gone power hungry. To make matters even worse, this is the first time in NFL history that a coach has been suspended for an entire year.

If you were to look at this punishment, you would think that this was the gambling tirade by Paul Horning or Alex Karras in the 1960s, but no—it was about laying down the equivalent of pocket change for an NFL player for getting a big hit or knocking a player out of the game.

And after all, wasn't it the big hits that made football so entertaining to watch back in the day? The football players that are playing in the NFL right now grew up watching these big hits, and players like Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher are becoming an extinct species due to all of these precautions by Goodell.

In no way am I saying what the Saints did was right—and yes, they should have been punished for what they did, but losing Payton for a year? Heck, I would have been okay with a punishment similar to Spygate.

By the way, the New England Patriots' punishment for recording the New York Jets coaches' signals in 2007 was a $500,000 fine to Bill Belichick, a loss of a first-round pick and a $250,000 fine to the Patriots organization. 

But the Saints' punishment blows that absolutely out of the water, and it's silly when you think about it. Those players weren't playing to get that pocket change, they were playing to get big hits and strike fear into the offense, which is what football is (or used to be) all about.

In order to relate this in such a way that people can truly understand the "bounty scandal" in a football player's mind, think of it as playing a game of Madden with your best friend.

These players lay money on the table, but they're not trying to hurt anyone to get the money, they're going out there and trying to lay some hard licks for pride. If I beat my good friend in Madden, that doesn't give me anything but some bragging rights.

So if you see players delivering a hard hit and saying "give me my money," it would be like me bragging to my friend about beating him in a game of Madden. It's a pride thing and really nothing more.

Until now, Spygate was the largest penalty ever given to an NFL head coach. Belichick lost $500,000, but Payton will lose $7 million for a unit that he never truly operated. It was defensive coordinator Gregg Williams who handled the defense, and though Payton might have known about the situation, he wasn't instigating it.

I'm sure we all have different opinions about the situation, but ask yourself, does the loss of your coach for a season and two draft picks suit the bill for a bounty scandal?

If most answers are yes, then I guess Goodell has changed this game, and not for the better.