It came as a thunderclap, what NFL commissioner Roger Goodell did to the New Orleans Saints Wednesday, the kind of thunderclap heard in a canyon over and over. Except this thunderclap is different because it will be a repeating echo that never will really go away, haunting, troubling, perpetual in its impact.
"It's like when Magic Johnson announced he was HIV positive," said Santa Rosa's Jerry Robinson, the 13-year NFL linebacker from Cardinal Newman. "We're not going to ever forget this. Just like then, it will make people stop and think: What are we doing?"
The cash bounty the Saints once employed now has come at a high cost. Saints coach Sean Payton has been suspended a year, his general manager suspended for eight games in the upcoming 2012 season, draft choices taken away this year and next. The former Saints' defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams, who organized and conducted the bounty, who established a $50,000 account to fund the operation, has been suspended indefinitely.
"The commissioner has spoken," Robinson said. "He put the hammer down and it wasn't a little itty bitty hammer. It was a sledgehammer. He sent a message to everyone in the NFL that this action will not be tolerated. And if you're think I'm kidding, do it again. Just imagine if someone ever tries to do this again."
It was as if Goodell immediately placed a bounty on the Saints -- and collected.
The first reaction from ex-NFL players living in Sonoma County was uniformly the same.
"To suspend Sean Payton," said Montgomery coach Jason Franci who played for the Denver Broncos in 1966, "seems awfully severe."
"Holy Cow! I am shocked," said West County resident Keith Dorney who played nine years for the Detroit Lions. "I hope he has the game's best interests at heart."
"I thought there would be fines and loss of draft choices but I didn't think he (Goodell) would take away the head coach," said El Molino head football coach Mike Roan, a six-year tight end for the Tennessee Titans. "For Payton to be gone for a year, you are doing damage to the franchise. You really hurt a franchise when you take a head coach out of the mix."
The embarrassment caused by the revelation of the Saints' bounty system comes at the most inopportune time for the league. "I just read on ESPN the league is facing 20 lawsuits related to player safety," Roan said. Add to that grim stories of players' suicide, chronic depression, dementia -- all tied to concussions and severe brain damage -- Goodell is trying to convince people the NFL cares for the health of its participants.
"It's all about protecting the shield -- the NFL logo," Robinson said.
One can argue that, absent all the other issues, Sean Payton would still have his job.
The unholy convergence of lawsuit, concussions and bounties has led to increased player protections on the field, all of which makes Dorney quite skeptical of the direction Goodell is sending the NFL. A preoccupation with safety, Dorney feels, eventually will sanitize the league.
"If this keeps going on," Dorney said, "in 10 years you're not going to recognize the NFL. To me, this (Saints' punishment) is way over the top. It's incredibly harsh. But with everything else that is happening (lawsuits, etc.) this is not an isolated incident."
Roan was with the Titans for the four years Williams was the defensive coordinator for the team.
"I have a lot of respect for that man," Roan said. "I didn't play on his side of the line of scrimmage but I had a lot of interaction with hm. I rooted for the Saints because he was the defensive coordinator there. When I was with the Titans I remember bounties like: A special team tackle inside the 10-yard line, causing a fumble, a big hit on special teams. That kind of stuff. I never remember money for hitting someone to be carted off the field. Bounties have always existed but not on that (Saints) level."
The tricky part of this story, however, is looking at a game tape and determining the headhunters.
"The defensive back has one one-thousandth of a second to decide if the wide receiver who caught the ball is defenseless," Dorney said.
"(That's why) I wouldn't want to be an official," Franci said. "It's a violent game and there are going to be violent hits."
Which leads to the next question: Will the Saints' penalties reduce the aggressiveness of players next season?
"You can't be less aggressive," Robinson said. "If you are, you'll get hurt. If you don't want to get hurt playing football, join the chess club. But you'll think twice before putting your helmet on a running back, quarterback or wide receiver."
"In some respects this will affect player aggressiveness," Dorney said.
On the other hand, it will affect how an offensive player approaches a tackler.
"Remember Reggie Miller (of the NBA's Indiana Pacers)?" Robinson said. "Reggie learned to kick out his leg at the defender just as he shot. So even if he missed the shot, Reggie knew he'd get to the free throw line because the defender fouled him.
"I can see the same thing happening in the NFL. A wide receiver goes up for the pass and can't get it. But he knows he's defenseless. So after he misses it he brings his helmet down to the same level as his tackler. He knows it's going to be a helmet-to-helmet hit! Why not? I'll take the hit because my team just made 15 yards and got a first down. I'll call it the Reggie Miller Rule."
So that it's all well and good that Roger Goodell showed who's sheriff in this here town -- and he had to do more than make the Saints stand in the corner and take a timeout -- there's only one real conclusion to be made about what happened Wednesday.
"It was a real eye-opener," Robinson said.
Problem is, what did it open?
For more North Bay sports go to Bob Padecky's blog at padecky.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5223 or bob.padecky@pressdemocrat.com.
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