“And you just ask yourself,” Robertson said, “OK, so Peyton Manning was a tremendous MVP quarterback, but he’s been injured. If that injury comes back, Denver will find itself without a quarterback. And in my opinion, it would serve them right.”
Glad to see Pat still has that wrathful God thing going on. Of course, Crazy Pat is missing something: like Tim Tebow, Peyton Manning is a Republican. Guess this is the sports version of the GOP primary: God will smite you edition.
When I saw the Rev’s comments, I kept wondering whether or not Roger Goodell would comment on this celestial bounty. Thus far, the Commish has been too busy eliminating the Saints from Super Bowl contention to deal with a crazy man from Virginia. Btw, I think punishment was warranted but Goodell went way overboard, which has led to a sort of a mutiny about the bounty here in NOLA…
Always am amazed at how the Supreme Being, creator of all that is seen and unseen (Catholic dogma yes, but…); anyway, supposedly being responsible for all this stuff God’s instead busy watching Sportcenter and gleefully rubbing his hands together, cackling about how He’s gonna put a world of hurt on Peyton Manning and Bronco fans generally.
Then again, I’ll at least hand it to Robertson — most people who hear voices in their head go to the nut house. He managed to make a comfortable if weird living.
As for the Saints, I’m wondering if Goodell backs down a bit. There’s still plenty of time to reduce Peyton’s suspension to six or eight games, while sending a message about bounties…the message apparently being “don’t be quite so open about it.” Because bounties aren’t going away…
“Because bounties aren’t going away…”
This sort of “fiddle-dee-dee” attitude is very weird to me. If prizes for causing people injury aren’t going away, then the NFL should go away.
It would have been impossible for Goodell to go overboard without contracting the Saints. This scandal strikes at the very heart of what professional football is about and is a major existential crisis for the sport.
“Everybody does it” is not a defense. The Saints got caught doing something that is specifically prohibited by league rules, by the collective bargaining agreement, by the team charter, and by the contracts of the individual players. It was an unambiguously anticompetitive, unsportsmanlike and inhumane act that persisted even after ownership had become aware of it. Yes, there are rumors that other teams do this, or something like it, but those teams didn’t get caught. The Saints did.
Payton should never coach again, in my view. A year’s suspension seems on the low end of satisfactory. Any suspension that lets him come back for the playoffs is a slap on the wrist that basically accepts, as you guys seem to be urging the NFL to do, that teams will continue to pay players for intentionally injuring their opponents on the field.