Why NFL's Mounting Legal Woes Forced Swift Punishment Toward Saints Players

The NFL absolutely had to hand down major punishment on the New Orleans Saints players whether it really wanted to or not. 

Sure, an incentive program to purposely hurt opponents cannot be tolerated, but the league's mounting legal troubles are really what forced NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to take action. 

An abundance of former NFL players are filing lawsuits against the league at an alarming rate. 

The reasons? 

Negligence, fraudulent concealment, material misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation and conspiracy to name a few. 

Some suits allege "the NFL failed to effectively protect its players from brain injuries and later in life, dementia, resulting from repeated blows to the head."

Whether or not the league truly cares about the well-being of its players after they've retired will never be known by the general public, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the league realizes the importance of at least depicting it's serious about player safety. 

That's why Goodell had to make an example of the Saints and their ruthless bounty program. We've heard from numerous players that similar systems can be found across the league, but because of the fact that news of the Saints' program was broken to the public and the incredibly damning Gregg Williams audio was released, the NFL had no choice. 

The NFL has a lot on its legal plate in regards to more and more former players filing lawsuits.

The least it could have done was to be extremely severe in the Saints' punishment, even if they might be the whipping boy in all of this.

Everyone knows they were trying to injure their opponents, but that's the last thing the NFL needed to hear. 

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