Man, Coach, and Mentor: Why Sean Payton's Deserves His Suspension

The NFL's official investigation shows that Sean Payton is no saint (ba-dum-cha).

Sean Payton's suspension wasn't the only blow the Saints organization suffered yesterday, but that is what New Orleans fans have in mind as they paint Roger Goodell as a dictator on a power trip. Folks in New Orleans were happy to throw Gregg Williams under the bus now that he is no longer with the Saints. Losing a draft pick or two was also to be expected. And few care about owner Tom Benson's wallet (in fact, despite a $500,000 penalty, Benson actually saves $7.5 million dollars because he will not pay Payton's $8 million salary this season). But few expected Payton to suffer more than a brief hiatus from his usual duties. A four game suspension, sure. Maybe eight games, if Goodell wanted to make a point. But banishment from the league for a year? For the first suspension ever given to a head coach in league history? It seems harsh, right?

Is this a case of the captain going down with his ship? Let's look at the NFL's official announcement about what Payton was guilty of. Keep in mind that these are facts, not allegations, since they have been confirmed via investigation and confessed to by Payton.

NFL Free Agency, Position By Position

Mario Williams and Peyton Manning may soon be battling outside the AFC South.

As the official start of the 2012 league year is upon us, here's my quick take on which positions have the best options for teams in free agency, and which are better left addressed via the draft.

Wide Receiver - No position has more depth and variety in the free agent market than receiver. Vincent Jackson will give one lucky quarterback a tall deep threat. Brandon Lloyd and Reggie Wayne are veterans who've mastered the art of the sideline catch. Robert Meachem and Pierre Garcon are used to working with top quarterbacks in high-powered offenses. Mario Manningham has a flair for the dramatic, as we saw in the Super Bowl. Josh Morgan and Laurent Robinson could fully tap their potential in a starting role. Even veterans like Jerricho Cotchery and Plaxico Burress can succeed in the right situation.

Guard - If the Saints weren't already paying fellow guard Jahri Evans a seven million dollar salary, then they'd keep top guard Carl Nicks. The Ravens are in the same position, as they can't afford Ben Grubbs while they're already paying Marshall Yanda handsomely. Joining Nicks and Grubbs as an upper tier free agent is Evan Mathis, who is criminally underrated as both a football player and a sit-down comedian. For teams looking for more value at a cheaper price, Chilo Rachal is a starter in his prime and Steve Hutchinson may still have a couple good years left in his Hall of Fame career.

Forced Collusion: Why The Redskins and Cowboys Are Paying For Roger Goodell's Mistakes

Apparently you don't have to break a rule anymore to face Roger Goodell's wrath.

Between the Saints bounty saga (I refuse to call it Bountygate), the Robert Griffin III trade, the courtship of Peyton Manning, and the free agency frenzy, there's a lot of news and excitement surrounding the NFL right now. And yet this morning I find myself captivated by the news that the Redskins and Cowboys are being penalized a whopping $46 million of cap space for front-loading contracts during the 2010 uncapped year. It's not the sexiest story out there, but it might be the biggest.

At first glance, this seems like a classic punishment for Daniel Snyder and Jerry Jones, two owners notoriously known for their attempts to buy a championship. But the more I learn about this, the more evidence I see that Washington and Dallas could be the victims of some serious intimidation and manipulation by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Hunger Games: Is Andrew Luck Walking Into A Death Trap?

A scene from The Hunger Games, a book based on Andrew Luck's rookie season.

On Monday, I finally took a friend's advice and started reading The Hunger Games, a best-selling novel that is sure to challenge some box office records in two weeks. It tells a tale of a 16 year old girl living in a post-apocalyptic America, where an annual adolescent fight to the death determines regional superiority. After being selected to represent her downtrodden district, the heroine is whisked away to The Capitol and presented with feasts, servants, and luxuries she could never imagine. Then, after days of ceremonies where she is showered with praise and cheered by millions of fans, she is sent into an arena to face certain death in front of a televised audience. In other words, she is the fictional version of Andrew Luck.

Every Team Does It: Why The Saints Deserve To Be Punished

Few NFL players are strangers to bounties. But that doesn't excuse Gregg Williams and the Saints.

As this Saints bounty story unfolds, I hear folks compare it to the Spygate scandal of 2007. Probably because it involves a top-down organized effort to skirt the rules of fair play. Probably because it will bring massive penalties for the offending franchise. And probably because I live in New England, where every Patriots fan is desperate to have another NFL team get slapped with the "cheaters" label.  But the link that catches my eye is that familiar phrase, spoken by people who defended Bill Belichick five years ago and uttered by Saints fans now: "every team does it."*

Why Hines Ward Doesn't Belong In The Hall Of Fame

Hines Ward is an all-time great Steeler. But there's a lot of receivers waiting for a call from Canton.

I wrote about Hines Ward's case for the Hall of Fame a year ago, so some of you may already know my stance on this topic (in case you couldn't decipher from the title of this post). Now that the Steelers have decided to move on from Ward, I'm reading some articles putting him in Canton based on things like his toughness, his smile*, and his Dancing With The Stars charm. So let's revisit this argument.

*I've said this before, but I don't understand how the media misinterprets Ward's shit-eating grin as anything more than a brilliant way to get under his opponent's skin. If you really think it's his expression of some childlike love for the game, then perhaps you can ask one of the linebackers who he blindsided. "Oh, thanks for launching your forearm into the back of my head Hines! Almost concussed me on that one! But you're grinning from ear to ear, so you're clearly just really happy to be here!"

If you dig past the smiles and the midfield collisions, and instead look at his production, you'll see that Ward has to leapfrog a lot of his peers to get into Canton. Here is a list of wide receivers from the past 30 years who have (or will have) stats comparable to Ward's, but have yet to make the Hall of Fame: