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What do you think Greg Williams's punishment should be?
What do you think Greg Williams's punishment should be?
Mar 5, 2012 at 7:35 PM
- crabman82
- Veteran
- Posts: 16,991
he should be forced to coach, but not allowed to blitz
Mar 5, 2012 at 8:03 PM
- HearstFan
- Veteran
- Posts: 1,530
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.
Hitting someone in football with the intent to injure is no different than any other place in life -- playing the game gives you no protection from the law against causing INTENTIONAL injury to another person. Your protection from the law for causing an injury is because of the assumption that as part of the practice of the game, there are hazards, but NO malicious intent. As a matter of fact, the NFL rules specifically ban hits and actions that have the intent to injure, which gives criminal and civil legal action grounds for action when INTENT can be PROVED beyond a reasonable doubt.
For example, the Albert Haynsworth stomp that caused injury to the Dallas center Gourode (sp?) could have led to legal action against Haynesworth. Haynesworth only protection to reduce the seriousness of the charges would have been that he acted without fore-thought -- in the heat of the moment -- and as such without intent to maim or cause seriously injury. Also, the person injured has to press charges.
The fact that players were acting with fore-thought and intent greatly increases the severity of the legal consequences -- in both a criminal and civil case. The challenge would be for the attorney's to prove that a specific hit and resulting injury were motivated by the bounty, and were not just part of the game. Proving that would be EXTREMELY difficult -- you would essetnially have to have a witness testify that the player making the hit told them in advance of their intent during the game (it could be in general to hit someone to earn the bounty) and then after the specific hit the player claimed he was motivated by the bounty on that specific hit.
Now, suing the team that sponsored the bounty, now that would be FAR easier -- they are essentially sponsoring a criminal enterprise. Criminal charges could be filed simply on the fact that they paid bounties -- so finding specific instances of payment would have to be proved. Civil charges against the team would probably be a little harder because you would have to show specific damages from the bounty -- and prove a specific hit and injury were from the bounty per above.
Mar 5, 2012 at 8:30 PM
- Dr_Bill_Walsh
- Veteran
- Posts: 20,125
Mar 5, 2012 at 8:31 PM
- Cjez
- Hall of Fame
- Posts: 162,988
rape. to be preformed by the biggest black dude in the gay porn industry.
Mar 5, 2012 at 8:40 PM
- canadian49erfan
- Veteran
- Posts: 2,469
Originally posted by ChazBoner:
rape. to be preformed by the biggest black dude in the gay porn industry.
Sounds fair
Mar 5, 2012 at 9:41 PM
- Paul
- Veteran
- Posts: 6,729
maybe a fine? I don't really know... feel like it won't be as harsh as people expect it to be, or are guessing
Mar 5, 2012 at 9:55 PM
- Oakland-Niner
- Member
- Posts: 24,062
x 10
Mar 5, 2012 at 10:04 PM
- pdizo916
- Member
- Posts: 38,241
Originally posted by Oakland-Niner:
x 10
ouch!!!
Mar 5, 2012 at 10:19 PM
- SnakePlissken
- Veteran
- Posts: 15,028
Originally posted by ChazBoner:
rape. to be preformed by the biggest black dude in the gay porn industry.
Mar 6, 2012 at 6:29 AM
- TX9R
- Veteran
- Posts: 8,348
Small fine. I still don't think this is any big deal.
Mar 6, 2012 at 6:36 AM
- SundayTicket
- Member
- Posts: 5,316
Eddie D got his team taken away from him for just wanting to go on acid trips and build casinos... not hurt anybody.... i cant see how the punishment is going to be anything less than severe.
Mar 6, 2012 at 6:46 AM
- blizzuntz
- Veteran
- Posts: 48,031
a bounty on his head?
Mar 6, 2012 at 6:47 AM
- BobS
- Veteran
- Posts: 10,638
I would go with a one year ban and a hefty fine because this is the first time anyone has been caught doing this so there isn't a punishment standard in place. What I don't understand is why the players complied. His payments were small compared to the fines and suspensions players could get for delivering an illegal hit.
Mar 6, 2012 at 7:00 AM
- NeeJ49er
- Veteran
- Posts: 9,580
I never liked the guy
Give him a one year ban and hefty fine ..make an example of him in case another wise ass coach hatches a plan to hurt players in the future
Give him a one year ban and hefty fine ..make an example of him in case another wise ass coach hatches a plan to hurt players in the future
Mar 6, 2012 at 7:36 AM
- HessianDud
- Veteran
- Posts: 22,995
Originally posted by BobS:
I would go with a one year ban and a hefty fine because this is the first time anyone has been caught doing this so there isn't a punishment standard in place. What I don't understand is why the players complied. His payments were small compared to the fines and suspensions players could get for delivering an illegal hit.
not sure there has been a proven correlation to the bounties and illegal hits, except in the instance of Favre in the NFCCG.
IMO, the money they offered was beside the point, from the players point of view. 10,000 for them is a friendly wager, like you and your friends betting 10 bucks on something. The big deal about the money is that it violates the salary cap structure.