The New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, colloquially known as "Bountygate", was an illegal program in which the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL) placed bounties on opposing players. If a targeted player was injured and knocked out of a game, a bonus would be paid to the defensive player that made the hit. A slush fund for paying the bounties was found to have operated from the 2009 season (the year in which the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV) to the 2011–12 playoffs.
League commissioner Roger Goodell responded with some of the most severe sanctions in the league's history and among the most severe punishments for in-game misconduct in North American professional sports history. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was suspended indefinitely, though this would be overturned the following year. Head coach Sean Payton was suspended for the entire 2012 season—the first time since Chuck Fairbanks in 1978 that a head coach had been suspended and the first time a head coach was suspended by the league. General manager Mickey Loomis was suspended for the first eight games of the 2012 season—the first time that a general manager was suspended by the league for any reason. Assistant head coach Joe Vitt was suspended for the first six games of the 2012 season.
The Saints organization was penalized with a $500,000 fine and had to forfeit their second-round draft selections in 2012 and 2013. In May 2012, four current and former Saints players were suspended after being named as participants in the scandal, with linebacker Jonathan Vilma also being suspended for the entire 2012 season. However, former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue overturned all sanctions against the players in December 2012 after finding that although the players were "very much involved", the coaches and the Saints organization were primarily responsible for the scandal. After reviewing all of the NFL's evidence, DeMaurice Smith, the then-executive director of the National Football League Players Association, stated in December 2012 there was "certainly no evidence that the bounties existed".
Background
The NFL has long frowned upon "non-contract bonuses"; but an underground culture of "pay for play" systems is alleged to exist, with teams, it is claimed, turning a blind eye to the practice. The league constitution specifically forbids payment of bonuses based on performances against an individual player or team, as well as bonuses for on-field misconduct; the NFL holds that such practices undermine the integrity of the game, and also would allow teams to use such payments to circumvent the salary cap. The collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Players Association also forbids this practice, as does the standard NFL player contract. Every year, the NFL sends a memo, reiterating this ban to every team before training camp opens. However, according to many former players, bounty systems of some sort have been around the NFL for decades, with the percentage of players participating speculated to be between 30 and 40 percent. According to these players, such programs were usually informal and often between players only, more with intent at locker-room braggadocio than systemic malice. What would draw attention to the Saints' program was the alleged practice of methodically organizing such a concept at the coaches' level, where the Saints players were allegedly rewarded for injuring opposing star players.
After the Saints defeated the Minnesota Vikings in the 2009 NFC Championship Game in what became a heated rivalry, several Vikings players and coaches claimed that the Saints were deliberately trying to injure Vikings quarterback Brett Favre. The Vikings were particularly feeling suspicious when Saints defensive end Bobby McCray and defensive tackle Remi Ayodele knocked Favre to the ground with a high-low hit. McCray hit Favre below the knees, briefly knocking Favre out of the game with an ankle injury. No penalty was called on the play, though NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira said that a penalty should have been called, saying it was "the type of hit we don't want." Vikings coach Brad Childress later said that there were at least 13 instances where he felt the Saints deliberately went after Favre. Later, CBSSports.com NFL columnist Clark Judge said that several Vikings assistants told him they believed McCray was acting on direct orders from Williams, with at least one being so outraged that he threatened to "punch [Williams] in the face" the next time they met. Vikings owner Zygi Wilf even went as far as to complain to the league about what happened to Favre, though no action was taken at the time. Favre took such a severe beating that Vikings punter Chris Kluwe and placekicker Ryan Longwell wondered during the game if someone had put a bounty on him.
Favre's agent, Bus Cook, later said that he also felt the Saints were deliberately trying to knock Favre out of the game, and claimed that several hits on Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner in the divisional round a week earlier were a similar manner as well. It initially appeared that Cook's argument was strengthened by the fact that Warner was knocked out of that game with a chest injury (although he later returned), and retired two weeks later. However, Warner later said that the hit which knocked him out was legal, and had nothing to do with his decision to retire. Additionally, Favre later said he viewed the NFL's allegations against the Saints as "just hearsay" and that he did not "see enough evidence" the Saints had a bounty on him. In Favre's biography, author Jeff Pearlman wrote that former Vikings offensive lineman Artis Hicks who played with Favre said the Minnesota Vikings ran a bounty program at the time where a player was awarded with cash if they "hurt someone special". The NFL declined to investigate these claims regarding the Vikings' alleged bounty program.
Investigation
In the 2010 offseason, the NFL claimed that an anonymous player told NFL officials that the Saints had targeted Favre and Warner as part of a bounty program administered by Williams; the NFL's security department found the allegations credible enough to open an investigation. However, the players and team officials interviewed all denied that any bounty program ever existed, and the player who was claimed to have made the initial report, former Minnesota Vikings defensive lineman Jimmy Kennedy, stated that the NFL's story about him was a lie and described the NFL's investigation as "shoddy, careless, [and] shameful". Kennedy further stated he felt "damaged by the NFL's complete disregard for truth and integrity".
The NFL began investigating the Saints in 2010 in response to allegations of deliberate attempts to injure players during the 2009–10 playoffs, but the case went cold until it was reopened late in the 2011 season. On March 2, 2012, the NFL announced that it had evidence that defensive coordinator Gregg Williams had created the program soon after his arrival in 2009, and alleged that "between 22 and 27 Saints players" were involved. Williams and the players pooled their own money to pay out performance bonuses. It also asserted that head coach Sean Payton tried to cover up the scheme, and that he and general manager Mickey Loomis failed to shut it down when ordered to do so by team owner Tom Benson. Since then, Williams was accused of operating similar schemes during his tenure as defensive coordinator of the Tennessee Oilers/Titans and (since renamed) Washington Redskins and as head coach of the Buffalo Bills; the NFL briefly investigated these allegations, but elected to focus solely on the Saints.
In December 2012, CBS News reported on an interview it conducted with DeMaurice Smith, the then-executive director of the National Football League Players Association, regarding the "bounty program". Smith stated he had reviewed nearly 50,000 pages of evidence and nearly 20 hours of testimony and concluded, "There was certainly no evidence that the bounties existed". Smith also stated that the NFL should apologize for how they conducted the investigation because they had "maligned the character of good players".
Whistleblower In 2012, ESPN reported that former New Orleans Saints defensive assistant Mike Cerullo contacted the NFL regarding a bounty program after the 2009 postseason. Cerullo was released after the 2009 postseason for poor performance and lying about personal leave according to the New Orleans Saints. Cerullo testified that he kept track of payments and pledges made. Cerullo also states in the article, "I was angry for being let go from the Saints". Testimony during the Saints' appeals process revealed that Payton once asked for police protection for his family when he was out of town because he considered Cerullo a threat. In the summer of 2017, the NFL hired Mike Cerullo as Director of Football Administration. Cerullo later served as director of football operations at Princeton University.
Findings revealed
Late in the 2011 season, the NFL received what it called "significant and credible new information" that suggested there was indeed a "bounty" program in place. League officials, convinced that this information was irrefutable evidence a program was indeed in place, alerted Benson of their findings just before the Saints' first-round playoff game against the Detroit Lions. The investigation continued during the 2011–12 playoffs and continued through the 2012 offseason.
On March 2, 2012, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that the NFL had indeed found evidence of a bounty program. Later that day, the NFL announced it had obtained irrefutable proof of a bounty pool dating back to the 2009 season, based on a review of 18,000 documents. It determined that Williams had initiated the fund soon after he arrived in New Orleans in 2009, in hopes of making the defense more aggressive. Between 22 and 27 Saints defensive players were involved. The players and Williams contributed their own cash to the pot, and received cash payments based on their performance in the previous week's game. For instance, a special teamer who downed a kick returner inside the receiving team's 20-yard-line earned $100. Players could also be fined for mental mistakes and penalties. Players also received "bounties" for "cartoffs" (plays in which an opponent was removed from the field on a stretcher or cart) and "knockouts" (plays that resulted in a player being unable to return for the rest of the game). Players usually earned $1,000 for cart-offs and $1,500 for knockouts during the regular season, though they were encouraged to put their winnings back into the pot in order to raise the stakes as the season went on. Payments were known to double or even triple during the playoffs.
The NFL sent a confidential and detailed memo to all 32 teams detailing its findings. It revealed that the Saints had not only targeted Warner and Favre during the 2009 playoffs, but had also targeted Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton during the 2011 regular season. According to that memo, Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma offered $10,000 cash to any teammate who knocked Favre out of the NFC Championship Game. Another source told CBSSports.com's Mike Freeman that Reggie Bush's agent at the time, Michael Ornstein, was closely involved in the scheme from the beginning, having pledged $10,000 to the pot in 2009 in addition to an undisclosed amount in 2011.