NFL: Saints paid bounties for hits

On Friday afternoon, it was announced that a collective bargaining agreement appeals panel overturned the NFL's suspensions of four players for their involvement in the New Orleans Saints' "bounty program".  Subsequently, all 4 players (Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith, Scott Fujita, and Anthony Hargrove) are eligible to play this weekend. While the [...]

Just in time to demolish the NFL?s PR offensive to tamp down the controversy over head injuries in pro football comes word from the league that the Saints operated a lucrative bounty system where defensive players were rewarded for causing fumbles, interceptions?and harming opponents. Commissioner Roger Goodell isn?t happy, and he hasn?t said what he?ll ...

The New Orleans Saints are seeking their second-straight Super Bowl rings as the 2010 National Football League season is set to begin this week with 14 players serving suspensions.The Pittsburgh Steelers will start without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger who is one of four players suspended for violating the league's personal conduct policy. The others are Baltimore Ravens cornerback Cary Williams, New England Patriots tackle Quinn Ojinnaka and Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Aqib Talib.

The National Football League and the players' union were to resume contract negotiations on Thursday morning, less than 24 hours before their current collective bargaining agreement expires.New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who led his club to its first Super Bowl crown in 2010, was among the players on hand for four hours of talks Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to prevent what could be the NFL's first labor shutdown since 1987.The latest meeting before a federal mediator concluded with no comments from either side.

If injury bounties in the NFL are a big deal -- and they are, as the scandal enveloping the New Orleans Saints shows -- then they ought to be an even bigger deal in high school football, where the players are more vulnerable to manipulation by their adult coaches. Yet an ESPN columnist who personally witnessed a high school coach threatening his players with punishment unless they injured members of the other team chose not to report on the incident, which took place several years ago, until he mentioned it in his column Tuesday.

After meeting with a top Democratic senator, National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell announced Wednesday steps the league is taking to prevent the paying of bounties to players to intentionally injure their opponents, including the creation of an anonymous tip line players can use to report infractions.

On May 17, National Football League (NFL) player Jonathan Vilma filed a Complaint against NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.  The basis of Vilma's claims was that Goodell defamed the New Orleans Saints player by issuing multiple public statements alleging Vilma violated the NFL’s “Bounty Rule”¹, which were false and and injurious to his professional and personal reputation. Earlier [...]

Indianapolis and New Orleans, who flirted with perfect seasons before poor Decembers, will try to recapture the magic when their National Football League playoff runs begin Saturday.Indianapolis will play host to Baltimore while the Saints entertain Arizona in second-round playoff matchups Saturday.Dallas will visit Minnesota and the New York Jets will travel to San Diego in Sunday's playoff showdowns.Only Green Bay's 1968 NFL champions reached the Super Bowl after losing their last two regular season games, as Indianapolis did following a 14-0 start.