New Orleans Saints struggle with bounty punishments - NFL News
Things could not have gone much worse for the New Orleans Saints this offseason.
The franchise has been severely handicapped this season after the punishments handed down by the National Football League (NFL) over the bounty scandal.
The league fined the franchise $ 500,000 plus took away its second round draft picks for two seasons after the discovery of the illegal programme in the franchise’s defensive roster.
Saints head coach, Sean Payton was suspended for the entire 2012-13 season while general manager, Mickey Loomis and assistant coach, Joe Vitt each received an eight and six-game suspension.
In addition to that NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell also announced punishments for players involved in the bounty scandal.
Saints defence captain and linebacker, Jonathan Vilma was suspended for the entirety of the upcoming season and defensive end, Will Smith received a four-game suspension for what Goodell termed as their leadership role in installing the system.
Under such trying circumstances Vitt who has been named as the interim head coach in Payton’s absence is doing the best he can to prepare the team for the upcoming season.
According to ESPN.com Vitt told the media on Monday that they are trying to get used to the absence of Sean Payton.
"Since I've been here, as soon as we got off the practice field, Sean and I would go right to a meeting and talk about what we wanted to do differently in the afternoon.”
Adding further he said.
“I didn't have that this year. We also would do a lot of communicating on the practice field. What do you think of this? What do you think of that? That was a huge void right from the get-go and something we're going to have to get used to."
The bounty punishments is not the only problem facing the franchise as contract negotiations with star quarterback, Drew Brees remain stalled and a new long-term deal with the quarterback is no closer to being agreed.
Brees has been tagged by the Saints to keep him from entering free agency but the quarterback has still not signed his tender and it remains to be seen whether he will hold out of the training camp.
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