Bounty program for injuries?

[tallguy]

New Orleans Saints players and at least one assistant coach maintained a bounty program the last three seasons for inflicting game-ending injuries on opposing players, including Brett Favre and Kurt Warner — a pool that reached as much as $50,000 and paid specific amounts for ''cart-offs'' and ''knockouts,'' the NFL said Friday.

The report said the pool amounts reached their height in 2009, the year the Saints won the Super Bowl.

The league said between 22 and 27 defensive players were involved in the program and that it was administered by defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, with the knowledge of coach Sean Payton.

msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/New-Orleans-Saints-face-NFL-sanctions-for-offering-bounty-payments-for-injuring-opponents-NFL-030212

With as much as the NFL has overreacted regarding "vicious" hits, with heavy fines and possible suspensions for plays that would have been legal only a few years ago, is there any reason that these players and coaches participating in this program should not be banned for life? The game has been so watered down in the name of "player safety." To not impose heavy penalties here would destroy Commissioner Goodell's and the NFL's credibility.

I'm guessing a minimum of one year for the players, two years for the coaches, and a million-dollar fine for the franchise would get some people's attention....

[NoNamePerson]

I wonder if the players who received the "extra pay" declared it on their tax returns.

But if this had been the Raiders they would have shut the franchise down lock, stock and barrel. There would no longer be a Raiders team in the NFL. And all players, coaches, locker room cleaners would have been banned for LIFE