Bountygate

The National Football League has always promoted players' safety. Sure, the sport of football is violent, but that's all part of the game. Having a price placed on injuring a specific player is taking the idea of contact to a whole other level. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell makes it clear that there is no place in the NFL for deliberately seeking to injure another player, especially when offering a reward to do so. Any form of bounty is incompatible with the league's commitment to create a culture of sportsmanship, fairness and safety.

Head coach of the New Orleans Saints, Sean Payton has been on the main focus on many taboids recently because of the fact that he has been suspended for taking part in said bounty. A year from Sunday April 1st, Payton will be able to take the field once again and resume coaching for the Saints. Throughout his year ban, he won't receive any of his $7.5 million salary. On top of Payton's suspension, the Saints organization will have to pay a $500,000 fine and will have to give up their second- round draft picks in both the 2012 and 2013 draft. After investigation, it was proven that he wasn't being accused of handing out any payments to players nor did he play an active role in the bounties on these top players, but his lack of action to prevent these bounties was what led to his suspension.

I understand that Sean Payton is a big part of the NFL and Saints fans all over the world are punching their walls in anger, but the same exact rules apply to everyone. If the league is so fixed on promoting player's safety and protecting the integrity of the game, why go against that? You're being paid more than enough money to step onto that field each Sunday (Monday, Thursday and Saturday as well) to do something you love, to play the sport you grew up watching on television. I get the idea of why players would want to take part in a bounty. I mean, a little extra cash for placing a big hit on a player. But when it comes to physically injuring someone, another man who's in this to play the exact same game as you are, someone with the same amount of passion and love for the game, why do it? Why risk it? The player's can only see the dollar signs in front of their eyes, all they want is cold hard cash and don't care what they have to do to get it.

The head coaches job is to put a STOP to issues like these, not pretend they don't exist or brush them aside as if it's nothing. As much as I respect Sean Payton for what he's done as a head coach for the Saints, and even for what he's done for the Cowboys, there should have been a point where he took the initiative and stood up for what the NFL's rules are. Yes, a year is a very long time for a coach to be out of the game, but in all fairness, that is exactly what Payton deserves.