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:

Be A Tomorrow Person: Charging Into The NFL "Offseason"

Chuck Noll would not approve of me taking a break right now.

When the Steelers won their first Super Bowl on January 12th, 1975, it took coach Chuck Noll all of ten minutes to look ahead to next season. In his postgame speech to his players, he challenged them to be "Tomorrow People." As safety Mike Wagner explains, "if you're satisfied with what you're doing now or what you did yesterday, then you're gonna fail...Be a Tomorrow Person." The Steelers went on to win three more Super Bowls in the next five seasons, and many of those players are now in the Hall of Fame along with their coach.

Super Bowl XLVI: Behind Enemy Lines

Me before kickoff of Super Bowl XLVI. The calm before the storm.

One...two...three...four...five...six. When I got to the sixth row of the corner mezzanine of Lucas Oil Stadium, the one between the New England sideline and the Patriots end zone, I was greeted by a large man in a Rob Gronkowski jersey.

"I don't think these are your seats."

I chuckled, assuming that he was just giving me a hard time. But he didn't smile, and instead repeated himself.

"Seriously, you shouldn't be here."

I looked up, and quickly realized what he was talking about. Brady. Welker. Mankins. Mayo. Every jersey read the name of a Patriot. Somehow, for the biggest (and most expensive) sporting event of my life, I was surrounded by the enemy.

We Won

As we were sitting in the field section, confetti falling on our heads, Colin asked me how I was feeling. It's tough to describe the joy that comes with seeing your favorite team reach a goal that you've focused on for five months. I guess the easiest way to put it is that it hasn't hit me yet. You tune into the game every Sunday, just hoping for a win. No matter how far they get, you are still anticipating the next challenge. As long as the second half of Super Bowl XLVI was, the finish still snuck up on me. When Tom Brady was sacked by Justin Tuck on his last drive, the image of him calling for a timeout on his back was nearly identical to his reaction to the Jay Alford sack on the last drive of Super Bowl XLII. I felt the Patriot fans' pain at that point, but I also reflected on the times this year that this moment didn't seem possible. There were dozens of reasons why the 2011 Giants should not have been champions, but all that matters is that they had the opportunity to be in this situation and they took it. As the Patriots lined up for 4th and 16, I had tears in my eyes.

Of course, it wouldn't be that easy. It never was with the Giants this season. Of the New York's 19 games, 17 of them came down to the fourth quarter. This one would be no different. As the Patriots' hail mary fell into a crowd of players, my heart stopped. When I saw the ball roll out of the back of the end zone, I screamed. The rest of the night was a swarm of confetti and high fives and celebratory shots. I'll watch this game again and again over the next few weeks, and at some point it will all hit me. There's plenty of time to analyze how this game unfolded and what this means for each player's legacy and each franchise's future. For now, I'm just happy to be as lucky as I am. My team and I went to the Super Bowl, and we won.

We fucking won.

Preparing For Kickoff

We're ready.

I couldn't handle the anticipation before kickoff of Super Bowl XLII, so I left my aunt's party and went to my grandmother's house. The couple of hours we spent chatting was one of my favorite memories of her, and I wish I had the chance to again escape the hype going into the game today. Instead, I'll be in the epicenter of it all.

The next post you see from me will be incredibly euphoric or crushingly depressing. Either way, I will probably not be sober when I publish it. I hope everyone enjoys the game, and follow me on Twitter to see my thoughts as it plays out. Thanks for reading. All in. Go Giants.