New Orleans Saints bounty scandal

Bounty Scandal

New Orleans Saints
Date	2009–2012
Venue	NFL
Participants	Gregg Williams, Sean Payton, Michael Ornstein, Joe Vitt, 22 to 27 Saints players
Outcome	Mass suspensions, federal court hearings and litigation

The New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, widely dubbed "Bountygate", was an incident in which members of the New Orleans Saints franchise of the NFL were accused of paying out bonuses, or "bounties", for injuring opposing team players. None of the hits in question were ever penalized or deemed illegal by in-game officials. The pool was alleged to have been in operation from 2009 (the year in which the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV) to 2011.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell responded with some of the most severe sanctions in the league's 92-year 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 in modern NFL history that a head coach has been suspended for any reason. General manager Mickey Loomis was suspended for the first eight games of the 2012 season. Assistant head coach Joe Vitt was suspended for the first six games of the 2012 season. The Saints organization was fined $500,000, and forced to forfeit their second-round draft selections in 2012 and 2013. On May 2, 2012, four current and former Saints players were suspended after being named as ringleaders in the scandal, with linebacker Jonathan Vilma also being suspended for the entire 2012 season—the longest suspension for an on-field incident in modern NFL history. However, former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue overturned all sanctions against the players on December 11, 2012 after finding that the coaches were primarily responsible for the scandal.