The Saints were party of a scandal known as Bountygate in the NFL a couple years after they won their first Superbowl. Saints fans have been crazy in the Superdome, especially after the town was wrecked by the hurricane. They are super loyal to their team, and it shows especially after what they have gone through the past couple of years. Saints coach, Sean Payton, was suspended from his team, as well as the team losing two second round draft picks after being discovered that they were placing bounties on players in the NFL. Defensive Coordinator was offering extra bonuses if the defensive players could injure certain players on the offense. “Victims” of the bounties include players such as Brett Favre, Kurt Warner, and even Cam Newton.
Most
fans were in disbelief that their team would ever do such a thing. Even if the defensive coordinator was placing
bounties, why should Sean Payton be punished?
Joe Vitt, the assistant coach, was to be suspended six games, Sean
Payton was to be suspended for two seasons, and Linebacker Jonathon Vilma was
to be suspended for a whole season.
Vilma, however, appealed the suspension in court and won his
suspension. The fans were ecstatic to
have their best defensive player on the field but still very upset about the
unfair suspensions and draft picks being taken away.
The Superbowl is to be played in the Superdome this year,
and New Orleans fans blame NFL commissioner, Rodger Goodell, for the Saints
having an “off season.” These fans are
not happy about the fact that he will probably be coming to town February
third, and some fans are taking extreme actions against him. Even though he is letting Payton come back a
year early, he still won’t have them get their second round draft pick back,
and the fans are quite unforgiving. Some
of these fans own bars, and the bars they own absolutely refuse to serve
Goodell if he decides to “stumble into one of these bars.” According to ProFootballTalk, these bars have
a picture in the back in the kitchen with pictures of Goodell, captioned “Do
not serve this man!”
I suppose to sum up what I am saying; Fans are loyal to
one team, and not the whole sport, or the commissioner of the sport. If someone messes with a team, they’re
messing with the team’s fans, and they will not forgive you for it.
