
Goodell Gives Punished Saints No Options
There are few institutions more like the U.S. Army than the National Football League. Uniforms and helmets and training camps. Stick with your squads. If you're on time, you're...
New OrleansJen Floyd Engel, Fox Sports
Michael McCann, SI
Mike Triplett, New Orleans Times-Picayune
Gwen Knapp, San Francisco Chronicle
Jeff Duncan, New Orleans Times-Picayune

Based on the advice of my legal counsel, which really was a five-line Gchat with my lawyer friend, I am not attempting to assert any facts that have been neither confirmed nor de...(full article)

Jonathan Vilma's lawsuit against Roger Goodell sets the table for a historic challenge to a historic commissioner. On the surface, the suspended Saints linebacker's defamation cla...(full article)

New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma is trying to force the NFL to play defense for a change. His defamation lawsuit against NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Thursday w...(full article)

Apparently, the Saints plan to treat Sean Payton's absence with the reverence accorded a fallen hero, not a head coach serving a fairly justifiable year's suspension from the NFL...(full article)

Joe Vitt felt the void immediately. He took the field Friday for the first practice of the New Orleans Saints' rookie minicamp, and for the first time in a long time, colleague and...(full article)


There are few institutions more like the U.S. Army than the National Football League. Uniforms and helmets and training camps. Stick with your squads. If you're on time, you're...

The release of Anthony Hargrove's declaration to the NFL on Tuesday looked bad for the New Orleans Saints. And it looked bad for the league. First, the bad news for the Saints: Har...

For many loyal members of the Who Dat Nation, the choice of whom and what to believe in this great bounty debate is an easy one: Defend the New Orleans Saints, no matter what. But...

Mute the wailing, avoid the gnashing of teeth and closet the sackcloth. This was expected. In fact, a persuasive argument can be made that New Orleans Saints players got off light...

Jonathan Vilma and the other three players suspended by Goodell on Wednesday: monstrous for leading a ring that paid bonuses to Saints teammates for hurting other players at a time...

Roger Goodell came down with his latest bit of heavy-handed punishment regarding the New Orleans Saints' bounty scandal, but be sure of one thing: As quickly as Goodell might wan...

Two months to the day after this bombshell of a story first exploded across the NFL, the final shoe finally dropped Wednesday in the Saints bounty scandal. And predictably, it la...

Six weeks ago, it was the coaches and general manager. Today, it's four players who, "of their own accord pledged significant amounts of their own money toward bounties," accordi...

The fallout from the New Orleans Saints' participation in the bounty program threatens to wreck their 2012 season. The team has already lost Sean Payton to a season-long suspens...

All things considered – such as the NFL investigating a reported 22 to 27 players in the bounty scandal – the New Orleans Saints made out OK on Wednesday. The league announce...

With the long awaited news coming Wednesday of the suspensions for their involvement in a New Orleans Saints bounty scheme, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell noted the four have three...

I was instantly skeptical of ESPN’s report regarding eavesdropping allegedly engaged in by Saints G.M. Mickey Loomis due to two people: Bernie Fine and Bill Polian. F...

Roger Goodell does have an entire league to run, you know. Is there any chance he can take a few minutes every once in a while to attend to the business of the other 31 NFL teams...

The instinct here is that New Orleans Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis will survive this latest accusation of foul play: an ESPN report accusing him of eavesdropping on o...

Wait: The allegations against Mickey Loomis make no sense? How on earth is that? How is the notion of no value that Loomis, the GM of the New Orleans Saints, had electronic ac...

The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Louisiana was told Friday that New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis had an electronic device in his Superdome sui...

Amid the pomp and circumstance of Tom Benson's purchase of the New Orleans Hornets, one question remained unanswered. Where was Rita? Rita Benson LeBlanc, Saints owner and executi...

In a few months, Tom Benson will begin to reshape the New Orleans Hornets in his vision, most visibly by changing the team's name but also by doing something the team's last owner...

Bobby Petrino and Sean Payton might not seem like they have a lot in common, but something ties them together, and it should serve as a lesson to every big-time coach...

Sean Payton, smartest guy in every room he has ever walked into, thought he could do what he did and not get busted. Can you believe that? He thought he could get awa...

y choosing Joe Vitt as their interim head coach, the New Orleans Saints sent a loud and clear message about who will be leading this team in 2012: Sean Payton. In fact, the Saints ...

The NBA’s days as an owner of the New Orleans Hornets are drawing to a close. The league reached a tentative agreement early Friday morning with New Orleans Saints owner To...

Bill Parcells won't be coaching the New Orleans Saints on an interim basis. This is a loss for the Saints and the many fans of one of the game's finest coaches. Having Parcells ba...

ou remember the last time Vermeil came out of long retirement? He discovered Kurt Warner, unleashed Marshall Faulk as a lethal weapon, built the Greatest Show on Turf and won a Su...

There is an old story that has been told, most recently in HBO's documentary "Namath," about a legendary quarterback with bad knees and a league full of opponents unwilling to ex...

Sean Payton and the Saints got what was coming to them. Understand that before reading another word. A year suspension for the head coach, eight games for general ma...

The accusations have been leveled, the bounty claims investigated, the verdicts issued, the appeals denied. A part of one of the most sordid cases in NFL history is o...

New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton, general manager Mickey Loomis and assistant head coach Joe Vitt will serve their suspensions as originally cast by NFL Commissioner Roger Go...

What if several executives of a multimilliondollar national corporation hatched a plan to pay bounties to its employees to deliberately injure key employees of competing corporat...

In the wake of the NFL bounty scandal, the Saints as the new “America’s Team” could not be more apropos. We believe that sports reflect our society. And in the transition fro...

It really has been fascinating to watch the flames climb on this New Orleans Saints story, the emperor of a very violent business feeding a howling and eager media one crumb at a...

Commissioner Roger Goodell doesn't need my help in deciding what to do with the Rams' disgraced defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams. Oh, I could do the fake media tough-guy pose...

With that explosive new piece of evidence regarding his favorite motivational techniques surfacing via audio tape, exiled former Saints defensive coordinator/ bounty program mast...

Two years and two months ago, Sean Payton and Gregg Williams stood under a shower of confetti on the field at Sun Life Stadium in Miami and celebrated the New Orleans Saints' Supe...

Yeah, I heard the audio of former New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams urging his players to injure various 49ers before their January playoff game. It's pretty comp...

What you're listening to is Gregg Williams hyping up the Saints before their playoff game with San Francisco. It becomes clear that New Orleans's bounty program was less about mo...

I spoke with Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Harvard-educated starting quarterback of the Buffalo Bills, around NFL Combine time last year. Draft prospects were taking the Wonderlic Cognit...

The fact Bill Parcells might take over the Saints is being discussed almost everywhere inside the NFL. In coaching offices. In texts between coaches. Phone calls and ...

While Sean Payton is appealing the year-long suspension that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell laid down as part of Bountygate, it seems unlikely that the appeals court — namely, R...

When the NFL first disclosed the existence of a three-year bounty system maintained and administered by the Saints, one of the immediate concerns became the reaction in New Orlea...

he league’s Rooney Rule requires teams to interview one minority candidate for each head coaching vacancy. It’s a good idea with a noble goal, but it has jumped the t...

The hurricane and the oil spill hit five years apart. At various times the team had neither a permanent home nor an owner. The best players wanted to leave, the league was locked...

Before it’s all said and done, Bill Parcells needs to remember one thing: No substitute teacher ever got in his car at the end of the day thinking, “That was a great experien...

In a 2011 season in which the New Orleans Saints rewarded players for injuring opponents in a "pay-for-pain" bounty scheme, the team was among the most violent in the National ...

If the Saints just want a hall monitor to motivate players, like the time Parcells left a gasoline can in Ricky Williams' locker to ask was there anything left in the tank, he can ...

There are so many things wrong with the Bill Parcells-to-New Orleans rumor I don't know where to start. But let me try. First of all, reports indicate that Saints' ...

His one-year league suspension has yet to even start, he continues to mull over his appeal options, and it's still far from clear as to who will replace him this season in New Or...

At the end of an 18-minute Tuesday morning media session -- his first public comments since the NFL handed down his one-year suspension -- New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payt...

After bringing the hammer down hard on the coaches, administration and future of the New Orleans Saints Wednesday, National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell clearly has...

While the NFL's busy free-agent signing period and Peyton Manning's Magical Mystery Tour continue to dominate the headlines this week, still looming in the background is the pend...

Kentucky grinded out a victory against LSU in the second round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament on Friday, but the Tigers might have exposed a potential flaw in the nati...

Two weeks of Lin-sanity and everything that entails finally got the best of Jeremy Lin. He’s no longer undefeated, no longer invincible and the Knicks winning streak is over....

New Orleans Hornets guard Eric Gordon said he is waiting to learn whether NBA commissioner David Stern will grant him a contract extension before Wednesday’s deadline. Gordon...

1. Whatever happened to the Patriots' aura of invincibility in the playoffs? Back in the day, New England in the playoffs meant you had better have your parade route at least ske...

After the game of AJ McCarron’s life, Alabama offensive coordinator—make that Colorado State head coach—Jim McElwain was talking about the sophomore quarterback...

When you grow up like Trent Richardson, you have dreams. Big dreams. But those dreams aren't confined to one night, one game, or even one season. When you have two li...

Unlike fellow Alabama kicker Cade Foster, Jeremy Shelley didn't abandon his Facebook page after the Crimson Tide's loss to LSU on Nov. 5. Foster had missed three field goals, and...

All week, as the Bowl Championship Series title game approached, it seemed as if Alabama’s football team consisted only of the most formidable defense in the nation and a d...

Jordan Jefferson saw daylight, maybe for the first time since Alabama started shoving him backwards and pushing LSU to the brink. One frustration after another, and finally there w...

If top-ranked LSU defeats No. 2 Alabama tonight in the BCS championship game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, the Tigers can claim to be more than the best college football team o...

Alabama coordinator Jim McElwain figures he had exactly one friend in the world on Nov. 5, when his offense failed to reach the end zone in a loss to LSU. "Thank God that my dog,...

At first, trainers told LSU offensive guard Josh Dworaczyk that he might have only damaged his medial collateral ligament. Dworaczyk knew better. He had felt the telltale pop whe...

The ruler of college football sat in the shade on a bench at the Windsor Court Hotel on Sunday, looking quite relaxed. There had been meetings earlier in the day and there were a ...

During Nick Saban's 29-year coaching career, he has been described a lot of ways: demanding, intense and driven. Also he's been called a liar for how he left the Miam...

The worst part, the absolute worst part in the aftermath of an event so personal, was that it deepened the pain of a relationship that was never personal enough. And can never be...

Finally, we get to watch some real college football. The kind of hard-nosed, rock-ribbed, slobber-knocking football they play in the Southeastern Conference. Not this sissified, ba...

I was thoroughly entertained by the offensive shootout in the Alamo Bowl a few weeks back. It was also a blast to see the back-and-forth collection of big plays in th...

"It's not one of those teams that comes along every year. Or every five years," former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer says. "If they win, they'll have to be recognized as one of t...

The most important development in No. 2 Alabama's preparations for its rematch against No. 1 LSU in Monday night's Allstate BCS National Championship Game might have come on the ...

LSU’s case for being the favorite in Monday’s BCS title game vs. Alabama couldn’t be clearer, could it? The Tigers are college football’s No. 1-ranked team ...

The Los Angeles Clippers celebrated their trade for Chris Paul as a landmark moment for the woeful franchise. Eric Gordon and Chris Kaman can be excused for not joining in the cele...

Just how far has New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham come in less than two years in the NFL and less than three since he put on shoulder pads? Well, he’s not just a fav...

After watching Monday night’s debacle in New Orleans, it is hard to believe that the Atlanta Falcons took the Saints to overtime earlier this season.In the nationally tele...

In his preseason debut, newly acquired New Orleans Hornets center Chris Kaman made a strong first impression Wednesday night in the preseason finale against the Memphis Grizzlies...

The Clippers, the league’s punchline, have acquired Chris Paul and two second-round picks in exchange for (deep breath) Chris Kaman, Eric Gordon, Al-Farouq Aminu and the Ti...

The Lakers were hit with a two-by-four of bad news Wednesday, Chris Paul heading to the Clippers and Dwight Howard heading nowhere. The Lakers were privately fuming Wednesday, acco...

Does this trade make David Stern eligible for executive of the year? Fair's fair, and after all of the criticism of recent days it needs to be pointed out that Stern wound up doi...

The Clippers now have put pressure on the Lakers, and how funny a sentence is that? They have become the talk of the town, exciting and packed with all kinds of promise, while it's...

NEW ORLEANS - There is no more margin for error, no more room for Victor Cruz fumbles and slow offensive starts. There can be no more defensive lapses, no matter how youthful the l...

What? You thought the Game of the Century would feature 100 points? Admittedly, most of us assumed there would at least be a few touchdowns. Just one would have been nice. But fo...

Streets oozed with pedestrians. Lawns grew into epic tailgates. And fraternity homes lived up to legend. The Game of the Century? The partying Saturday in anticipation of the bi...

This was Alabama vs. LSU. You were expecting the Big 12? Let's hope you didn't come to the Game of the Century to see touchdowns. No, this was the place for the grit and the hits...

The finest hour of LSU's still-perfect season occurred at approximately 10:35 p.m. Saturday night, in as hostile of an environment as can be conjured, against the toughest oppone...

With open arms into a community recently ravaged by tornadoes and a sport ravaged by a spate of negative news since the beginning of last year, from various NCAA violations to con...

Before the age of contrived commitment press conferences, before recruits began pulling bullpups from underneath a table to drive home the point they were becoming Bu...

LSU: Here’s an interesting number: LSU runs the ball more than Alabama. The Tigers have 352 carries (38 more than the Tide), and share a bulk of the load between TBs Spenc...

The most noticeable difference is the coaches. Yes, both Nick Saban and Les Miles have won national championships, and, sure, they have almost identical records against ranked op...

Barrett Jones is a nerd, at least by football standards. The Alabama redshirt junior left tackle is so talented at the violin that he can play what people hum. He has such a big v...

LSU's three turnovers are the fewest in the nation, they did not turn the ball over once in October, and they have gone 59 possessions without losing a fumble or throwing an inte...

When Louisiana State played at Alabama two years ago, the game was so physical the Tigers were carting players off the field. The injured included running back Charles Scott, who...

Trent Richardson stiff-arms Heisman Trophy questions the way he pounds through tackles. Alabama's star running back can dip, dodge and outrun all the inquiries, but it won't sto...

Claiborne is a tall cornerback who has shocking quickness, explosiveness and playing speed. He has been an impact playmaker in 2011 because he has excellent instincts and natural...

It was an epic night, a record-setting performance and a fitting one on Landslide Weekend in Louisiana. The Saints joined Gov. Bobby Jindal and the top-ranked LSU Tigers to complet...

For years, Payton has mockingly motivated some of his injured players by presenting them with a china doll encased in bubble wrap. This week, they couldn't wait to return the fav...