What do you think Greg Williams's punishment should be?

If the majority vote is lifetime ban for Williams, what about the punishments for Head Coach Sean Payton for "looking the other way following allegations of the system," for General Manager Mickey Loomis who was told by the owner to stop the system but did not, or the 22-25 players who participated?

I suggest:
Payton: 6-month suspension
Loomis: 1-year suspension
Players: 4-8 game suspensions

1 year ban

BANT !

If its as bad as they're saying (multiple coaching gigs with bounty programs at everyone of them) I would say banned for life. I'm also basing this off the fact that baseball banned Pete Rose for illegally gambling and IMO if you can justify banning someone for life for gambling you bet its worthwhile to ban someone who was institutionalizing a culture of intentionally trying to seriously injure opponents. admittedly the athletes sign up for some amount of risk but the malicious intent of it is what gets me.

Not to mention way back the 60s the NFL banned a couple of guys for 1 season for gambling, then jump forward to Pete Rose getting banned for life for his gambling (its another sport I know but I'm speaking from a pro sport with a union type of perspective) I would definitely think that with the NFLs overemphasis on player safety that if Williams has done this for 5-10 year he deserve to be banned, if he has only done it at NO I wouldn't mind a 1 to multiyear ban and something along the lines of the NCAAs "Show Cause" penalty that he or the team that wishes to hire him has to pay a fine and submit to a review by the league.

I dont doubt that other teams do this but had the Saints self reported this crime when Tom Benson found out about it it would've been a slap on the wrist or at the very worst a similar punishment for what the Patriots got for Spygate, now with the Player Safety Crusade the Saints will have their proverbial heads on a spear to show the rest of the league not to continue this practice.

kill him.

A 1 year ban might as well be a lifetime ban. Would you see teams lining up to hire him as their DC in 2013? He's not even that good of a DC in the 1st place...

Lifetime ban it is, then

sweet chin music from shawn michaels

1 year ban but I think he might be just about done coaching in the NFL. Though Jeff Fisher is very, very loyal to his assistants

Strapped to a chair with a bowl of milk under his face and a continuous cutting of onions.

Originally posted by English:
Lifetime ban it is, then

Show him the door

Originally posted by AmpLee:
Strapped to a chair with a bowl of milk under his face and a continuous cutting of onions.

lol this....while watching patrick willis highlight reels

With the owners wanting to go to an 18 game schedule, the league MUST cut down on injuries if they are going to sell it to the players. With all the money being spent on new ball parks, they owners have to increase their revenue stream to pay for them. Two more games and the broadcast money they bring is a HUGE deal for the league (READ: owners).

Follow the money. Williams will never coach in this league again.

Coaching the Rams is punishment enough

Originally posted by RDB4216:

Originally posted by okdkid:
Also, how is this not a crime? He literally paid people to intentionally injure others.

What makes the Nancy Kerrigan thing a crime and this any different? Intentional is intentional.

If you got caught at work trying to give $1,000 to somebody to intentionally injure a co-worker... not only would you be fired, you'd have charges filed against you.

The difference is, this all occurred within the confines of the game. Hitting someone in football isn't illegal, regardless of the intent. And for the most part, I think the hits in question are legal hits where no flags were thrown, even. What happened to Kerrigan had nothing to do with the sport, and would be the same as hitting a random person on the street.

However, unless the people that received these bounties declared them as income (highly unlikely), then it is a crime - called tax evasion.

Excellent post. Comparing this to what happened to Nancy Kerigan and her planned attack away from the sport is far fetched. Tonya Harding helped plan a vicious attack on her.

As you say, hitting is part of the game and bounty or not defensive players are going to hit hard and hit often whenever they get the chance. I also do not believe any hits from Saints players were considered dirty at the time or that players were fined. That does not mean that I think a bounty system is in anyway acceptable at all. I just doubt it was as impactful as many think. Still, a 1 year ban is appropriate given the repeated offenses.