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Accountability for Saints Mess Goes Higher Than Williams
By Howard Balzer
Published: March 07, 2012 @ 12:36am
Howard Balzer is the Managing Editor and Lead Columnist for 101Sports.com and host of "Pro Football Sunday" on 101 ESPN. Contact him via email at HBalzer@101espn.com and follow him on twitter @HBalzer721.
http://www.101sports.com/category/hbalz ... -Williams/
Random thoughts while stunned at the lack of perspective from the lynch-mob mentality that somehow believes Gregg Williams is the devil incarnate ...
My reference to the player or players that ratted out his one-time teammates as “a snitch” generated a reaction from those that said a better term is “whistle-blower.”
I beg to differ. First, there have been other players that consider them snitches. More important, a whistle-blower is someone that tries to stop something before it happens, or at the very least, looks to stop it when it’s gotten out of hand.
It’s fair to assume that didn’t happen.
That “apology” from Saints coach Asshole Face and general manager Mickey Loomis sure sounded sincere, didn’t it?
Especially when their apology was to their boss, owner Thomas Benson. Heck, they could have gone to his office and done that. Their 101-word statement was just as much PR as commissioner Roger Goodell’s reaction to this whole mess.
And how is it that all the sanctimonious calls for a lifetime ban for Williams aren’t also advocating the same fate for Payton? He knew about it, condoned it, and did nothing to stop it. In fact, Goodell has numerous emails between Payton and convicted felon Mike Ornstein, who bank-rolled some of the bounties.
Ornstein once worked for the NFL in marketing, but was nabbed for trying to defraud the league to the tune of $350,000. He engineered a scheme involving fraudulent invoices. That led to a guilty plea for mail fraud and he served four months home confinement, five years probation and paid the league $160,000 in restitution.
Wait; there’s more. He got involved with Reggie Bush when he was at Southern Cal and was a party to the improper benefits Bush received. He ended up in New Orleans after Bush was drafted, and became a friend and confidant of Payton. The New Orleans Time-Picayune once wrote, “While not an official employee of the Saints, Ornstein has been a fixture at practices, games and in the locker room since the Saints drafted Bush in April 2006. He often wears team gear and is a regular presence on the sideline and on the field during practices.”
He later got in trouble with the law again involving Super Bowl tickets and trading cards with fake letters of authenticity.
And somehow Williams is the only bad guy in this because he got carried away with a system that didn’t result in significantly more penalties or fines than other teams for illegal hits?
Still, here’s the one aspect I’m really having a hard time grasping: How is it that anyone can somehow consider this situation much worse than what Bill Belichick orchestrated in New England?
The Patriots were involved in a consistent system for numerous years of cheating to gain a competitive advantage over their opponents. Most amazing is that after the Patriots turned over their tapes to the NFL, Goodell had them destroyed.
For their transgressions, Belichick was fined $500,000, the Patriots $250,000 and the team forfeited a first-round pick. That’s it. No suspensions, not even one game. Yet, most everyone expects the punishments to be much worse now. Why?
How is it that anyone can make a coherent argument that paying bonuses to players for what they do anyway is somehow worthy of a suspension for Williams of a year, which many believe Goodell will rule?
Goodell professes to be tough on player safety, but despite all the fines for illegal hits in the last two seasons, only two players, Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and Steelers linebacker James Harrison, have been suspended. Suh’s actions were so egregious, Goodell didn’t have a choice. But Harrison got one game after being hit with fines in multiple games.
Yet, there are those that believe the Steelers have been victimized, and fined unfairly, while Harrison consistently says he won’t change the way he plays and his coach defends him.
But Gregg Williams is the dangerous monster that must be stopped.
By Howard Balzer
Published: March 07, 2012 @ 12:36am
Howard Balzer is the Managing Editor and Lead Columnist for 101Sports.com and host of "Pro Football Sunday" on 101 ESPN. Contact him via email at HBalzer@101espn.com and follow him on twitter @HBalzer721.
http://www.101sports.com/category/hbalz ... -Williams/
Random thoughts while stunned at the lack of perspective from the lynch-mob mentality that somehow believes Gregg Williams is the devil incarnate ...
My reference to the player or players that ratted out his one-time teammates as “a snitch” generated a reaction from those that said a better term is “whistle-blower.”
I beg to differ. First, there have been other players that consider them snitches. More important, a whistle-blower is someone that tries to stop something before it happens, or at the very least, looks to stop it when it’s gotten out of hand.
It’s fair to assume that didn’t happen.
That “apology” from Saints coach Asshole Face and general manager Mickey Loomis sure sounded sincere, didn’t it?
Especially when their apology was to their boss, owner Thomas Benson. Heck, they could have gone to his office and done that. Their 101-word statement was just as much PR as commissioner Roger Goodell’s reaction to this whole mess.
And how is it that all the sanctimonious calls for a lifetime ban for Williams aren’t also advocating the same fate for Payton? He knew about it, condoned it, and did nothing to stop it. In fact, Goodell has numerous emails between Payton and convicted felon Mike Ornstein, who bank-rolled some of the bounties.
Ornstein once worked for the NFL in marketing, but was nabbed for trying to defraud the league to the tune of $350,000. He engineered a scheme involving fraudulent invoices. That led to a guilty plea for mail fraud and he served four months home confinement, five years probation and paid the league $160,000 in restitution.
Wait; there’s more. He got involved with Reggie Bush when he was at Southern Cal and was a party to the improper benefits Bush received. He ended up in New Orleans after Bush was drafted, and became a friend and confidant of Payton. The New Orleans Time-Picayune once wrote, “While not an official employee of the Saints, Ornstein has been a fixture at practices, games and in the locker room since the Saints drafted Bush in April 2006. He often wears team gear and is a regular presence on the sideline and on the field during practices.”
He later got in trouble with the law again involving Super Bowl tickets and trading cards with fake letters of authenticity.
And somehow Williams is the only bad guy in this because he got carried away with a system that didn’t result in significantly more penalties or fines than other teams for illegal hits?
Still, here’s the one aspect I’m really having a hard time grasping: How is it that anyone can somehow consider this situation much worse than what Bill Belichick orchestrated in New England?
The Patriots were involved in a consistent system for numerous years of cheating to gain a competitive advantage over their opponents. Most amazing is that after the Patriots turned over their tapes to the NFL, Goodell had them destroyed.
For their transgressions, Belichick was fined $500,000, the Patriots $250,000 and the team forfeited a first-round pick. That’s it. No suspensions, not even one game. Yet, most everyone expects the punishments to be much worse now. Why?
How is it that anyone can make a coherent argument that paying bonuses to players for what they do anyway is somehow worthy of a suspension for Williams of a year, which many believe Goodell will rule?
Goodell professes to be tough on player safety, but despite all the fines for illegal hits in the last two seasons, only two players, Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and Steelers linebacker James Harrison, have been suspended. Suh’s actions were so egregious, Goodell didn’t have a choice. But Harrison got one game after being hit with fines in multiple games.
Yet, there are those that believe the Steelers have been victimized, and fined unfairly, while Harrison consistently says he won’t change the way he plays and his coach defends him.
But Gregg Williams is the dangerous monster that must be stopped.
