Imagine if BountyGate never happened? (1 Viewer)

[LetsGetWaffles]

No, they didn't.

The defense already wasn't particularly great..........and the offense had essentially zero chance of repeating what it did in 2011.

Can't believe there are people out there who think Roger Goodell had this intense fear of a team who had never up to that point even won a road playoff game going to such extremes to ruin their season........when all he had to do was allow their defense to take the field a few times. The guy is a useless commish and generally not a likable guy, but I strongly suspect some people overestimate the amount of thought he previously put / currently puts into the Saints.

Disagree with the first part, agree 100% with the last part. I have no idea why so many people here think Goodell actively puts energy into specifically hurting the Saints bc of some vendetta (Payton being critical...) or any other reason (not wanting us in a home SB).

 

[SaintsAreWinners]

We lost a draft pick but... was 2012 even a good draft at all? Russ Wilson, Luke Kuechly, Harrison Smith were likely the only good names.

 

[Que Que 6]

I'd say wed have 2 and went to another but in this what if scenario are we also taking out the no call?

Say what? Lol.

 

[Nick Name]

I guarantee we would have a few SB wins by now. I am glad we finally have a stout defense again so hopefully we can win another for a proper sendoff for Drew!

It definitely squashed any chance of the Saints building a dynasty. Protected the Pats in that regard. There will never be a HC suspended for a year or a GM suspended through FA. It was absurd. The amazing part is the team sticking through it all.

 

[msusaintsfan]

So anyone else waiting on the 70,000 pages of evidence the NFL has on Bountygate or is that just me?

 

[Winter]

I'd say we'd have at least 2, but I say we should have at least 2 with bountygate.

I seriously wonder if they would have pulled the trigger on using us as scapegoat if we had won the super bowl in 2011. Is the disdain for this franchise enough they would have still done it, or would they have protected their "image" by not making a scandal out off their latest champions?

This is why I love baseball. Its the one professional sport that refuses to give in and truly upholds the integrity of the game.

 

[RJ in Lafayette]

Impossible to say. Impossible. Without bountygate, Payton might not be coaching today because of burnout, and the team might not have had its 2017 draft. In short, we probably would have been better from 2012 through 2016, but not as good from 2017 through today. But who knows.

 

[los226]

We'll never know. I know for sure, though, that we should have had at least a few more since 09, and specifically in the last 3 years. I'm glad we got the one, but dang. Sooooo close to having more.

If we don’t win it this year, then we might not ever win another one with Sean Payton. We’ve fielded really good teams, but have been unfortunate all three years. Please bless this team with good fortune Lady Luck.

 

[AK41]

When i signed up to the board the « bounty gate » story was something that i was curious about.
When I read you guys, it seems like this is something that didn’t happened and was made of by Goodel.

A lot of peoples still bash the team about that, so I’m curious to know with all your objectivity, if it’s 100% false or not ?
As a new fan, it’s something that I’m not familiar with. ?

 

[Booker]

When i signed up to the board the « bounty gate » story was something that i was curious about.
When I read you guys, it seems like this is something that didn’t happened and was made of by Goodel.

A lot of peoples still bash the team about that, so I’m curious to know with all your objectivity, if it’s 100% false or not ?
As a new fan, it’s something that I’m not familiar with. ?

The short story is the team had a big play kitty that players pitched money into, like a lot of other teams did, and used cartoonish language like "cart off" or "knock out" to describe good but clean hits. The league called it bounties and said the team was intentionally trying to injure opposing players. In fact during the three years of the supposed "bounty program," only opponents of the San Diego Chargers suffered fewer injuries than opponent of the Saints -- so if they were intentionally trying to injure opposing players they were really lousy at it.

 

[Scorpius the Allfather]

I'd say we'd have at least 2, but I say we should have at least 2 with bountygate.

I seriously wonder if they would have pulled the trigger on using us as scapegoat if we had won the super bowl in 2011. Is the disdain for this franchise enough they would have still done it, or would they have protected their "image" by not making a scandal out off their latest champions?

This is why I love baseball. Its the one professional sport that refuses to give in and truly upholds the integrity of the game.

I 100 percent think that had we won in 2011 then the penalties would've been worse to make even more of an example out of us.

 

[Scorpius the Allfather]

The short story is the team had a big play kitty that players pitched money into, like a lot of other teams did, and used cartoonish language like "cart off" or "knock out" to describe good but clean hits. The league called it bounties and said the team was intentionally trying to injure opposing players. In fact during the three years of the supposed "bounty program," only opponents of the San Diego Chargers suffered fewer injuries than opponent of the Saints -- so if they were intentionally trying to injure opposing players they were really lousy at it.

There was also a claim that we targeted a player on defense, meaning our offense was participating when it was only the defense that had a kitty pool. Also I think the players were fined money if they committed penalties. So all they were doing was adding a tiny extra motivation to playing hard and within the rules. Paul Tagliabue said the Saints should never have been punished.

 

[blackadder]

I guarantee we would have a few SB wins by now. I am glad we finally have a stout defense again so hopefully we can win another for a proper sendoff for Drew!

I'm not sure.

Going into bounty gate all personnel decisions that determined 2012 season were made.

Spagnoulo was hired, Williams let go. Williams was leaving with or without bountygate because of friction with Payton.

The defense was still going to be awful. The offense even without Payton was above average in productivity. We were still going to be 7-9 to 9-7 and not make it through playoffs.

And then post bountygate you saw the dismal decisions and hires, or refusal to adjust and fire.

Not losing the draft picks may have made some difference but we were headed for a rut. And we were also drafting very poorly in that stretch and terrible at FA.

Overall much more than bountygate was that we were fundamentally bad at defense, drafting and FA. You really have to look at the cleaning house on the scouting department, finally firing ineffective crony assistant coaches and bringing in Ireland as the real difference making set of decisions.

Bountygate was 100% a railroading but a lot more things were fundamentally flawed, so don't let it excuse those things.

 

[cajunrevenge]

I still get in heated arguments over this. Recently when googling some related stuff I came upon a Vikings player who admitted the Vikings not only had a bounty system but that they included intentionally injuring players. He even mentions a specific player they targeted.

Redirect Notice

www.google.com

 

[fnholmes]

I just mean that any talent we had wanted out immediately. I would have liked to keep Fujita a bit longer as well as some others.