Saints accused of "Bounty Program". Thoughts?

[smitty81]

If I was Drew Brees, I would get while the gettins good.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by smitty81

If I was Drew Brees, I would get while the gettins good.

He can't make a move, Josh. Until the fines and suspensions are handed down, he doesn't know what his team will look like.
He cannot play for any other team this year, he was Franchised. All he can do is sit the year out with Brad and Sean Payton.
He's already said he will NOT play without a long term contract in place. The last time he did that in good faith, he blew up his shoulder.
He's in a good position right now. If his team is going to suck, he should sit out the year and take his talent elsewhere.
Mind ya, they're within a couple million of being a done deal. He'll be the highest paid player in football. They're somewhere around 19.5 to 21.5 million a year right now. He's easily worth twice that salary just based on the merchandising he brings, but they need to work within the cap.
So he can't git, and the gittin ain't good.

[smitty81]

Originally Posted by shilala

He can't make a move, Josh. Until the fines and suspensions are handed down, he doesn't know what his team will look like.
He cannot play for any other team this year, he was Franchised. All he can do is sit the year out with Brad and Sean Payton.
He's already said he will NOT play without a long term contract in place. The last time he did that in good faith, he blew up his shoulder.
He's in a good position right now. If his team is going to suck, he should sit out the year and take his talent elsewhere.
Mind ya, they're within a couple million of being a done deal. He'll be the highest paid player in football. They're somewhere around 19.5 to 21.5 million a year right now. He's easily worth twice that salary just based on the merchandising he brings, but they need to work within the cap.
So he can't git, and the gittin ain't good.

I don't know why a QB of his caliber would even consider signing a long term contract with the Saints right now. The Saints are going to be feeling the repercussions of this for quite a while. Brees is getting old enough that he's going to need a decent team in the next few years if he's looking to go back to the Super Bowl. I just don't see the Saints in that race for a while now.

I would sit out the year and go elsewhere.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by smitty81

I don't know why a QB of his caliber would even consider signing a long term contract with the Saints right now. The Saints are going to be feeling the repercussions of this for quite a while. Brees is getting old enough that he's going to need a decent team in the next few years if he's looking to go back to the Super Bowl. I just don't see the Saints in that race for a while now.

I would sit out the year and go elsewhere.

He doesn't need any more accolades. He loves his city and his city loves him. He's achieved all a quarterback could hope to achieve. He's looking for a lifetime deal where he moves from player to operations, "elsewhere" isn't in his vocabulary. The only way it'll get there is if the Saints ownership/management forces him out.
This is his club, and as such, he'd love nothing more to stick it out and lead his team out of these difficulties. It would just make the Brees Legend that much larger. I guess you have to understand how much he's loved in that part of the world to understand his mindset. Suffice to say that God is first and Drew Brees is a close second.

[yourchoice]

Player suspensions...

Jonathan Vilma - entire 2012 season.
Anthony Hargrove (now with Green Bay) - 8 games
Will Smith - 4 games
Scott Fujita (now with Cleveland) -3 games.

[macpappy]

Man! I go away for a couple of months and all this crap breaks out. As a Saint's fan, I am disgusted with the whole thing. Plain and simple, they Saints got caught doing what a lot of other teams do. Then they lied and tried to cover it up. On top of that the NFL is being sued for not protecting the players more. So to me, the way the level of repercussions is understandable. I also believe that if the Saints would have stopped the program when it started and had not lied to the commissioner, then the penalties would not have been so severe. That being said, the Saints will survive. Payton's game plans will be followed. The defense may be without Vilma for a year but I believe that's actually an upgrade. Will Smith won't be missed as much either.

As for the "allegation" of Loomis eavesdropping on other coaches - that whole thing seems to have dropped fairly quickly when the sources were revealed to be people fired from the Saints for just cause.