The National Football League has suspended four members of the New Orleans Saints after revelations that Defenseive Coordinator Gregg Williams and players in a leadership role instituted a “bounty” program, which rewarded players with cash bonuses for causing injuries to opponents. The NFL suspended Williams indefinitely in mid-February over the incident, and handed down more suspensions today to Saints defensive players Scott Fujita, Anthony Hargrove, Will Smith, and Jonathan Vilma for “conduct detrimental to the NFL.”
Fujita was suspended for three games, Smith four games, Hargrove eight and Vilma, the Saints’ defensive capitan, for the entire 2012 season. “The investigation concluded that while a captain of the defensive unit Vilma assisted Coach Williams in establishing and funding the program. Multiple independent sources also confirmed that Vilma offered a specific bounty — $10,000 in cash – to any player who knocked Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner out of the 2009 Divisional Playoff Game and later pledged the same amount to anyone who knocked Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre out of the 2009 NFC Championship Game the following week (played on January 24, 2010),” the Saints said in a press release, also noting that Vilma will be eligible for reinstatement after the 2013 Super Bowl.
