Senator calls hearing to examine bounties in NFL

Ilinois Democrat Dick Durbin

(AP) WASHINGTON - The Senate wants to grill the NFL about bounties. And the NBA, NHL, NCAA and Major League Baseball are invited, too.

Sen. Dick Durbin is setting up a Judiciary Committee hearing about bounties in professional football and other major sports in the wake of news that New Orleans Saints players received extra cash for hits that hurt particular opponents.

The assistant Senate majority leader, an Illinois Democrat, said Thursday he wants to examine whether federal law should make such bounty systems a crime.

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"Let's be real basic about it here. If this activity were taking place off of a sporting field, away from a court, nobody would have a second thought (about whether it's wrong). `You mean, someone paid you to go out and hurt someone?"' Durbin said in a telephone interview before raising the issue on the floor of the Senate.

"It goes way beyond the rules of any sporting contest, at least team contest, to intentionally inflict harm on another person for a financial reward," he said.

His announcement came a day after the NFL took a harsh stand on bounties, suspending Saints head coach Sean Payton for all of next season, and indefinitely banning their former defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams. Saints general manager Mickey Loomis was barred for half of 2012, an assistant coach got a six-game ban, and the team also was docked two second-round draft picks and $500,000.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell still needs to decide what penalties to give players who were involved in the Saints' scheme from 2009-11.

"I am encouraged by what the National Football League did. What they came down with as a penalty on the New Orleans Saints was decisive and historic," Durbin said, adding that he thought the league was "taking this very seriously."

But moving forward, the NFL and other leagues must "come up with standards to make sure this isn't going to happen again," he said. Otherwise, lawmakers will need to "at least explore whether it is necessary to have federal legislation in this area."

One possibility, Durbin explained, would be to extend federal sports bribery laws to cover bounties, so that "if someone offers in a team sports situation some sort of value, money or otherwise, to intentionally hurt another player, that, in fact, would be a crime."

According to the NFL, Saints defensive captain Jonathan Vilma (seen here tackling Panthers' QB Cam Newton) offered $10,000 to any player who knocked then-Vikings QB Favre out of the 2010 NFC championship game.

/ Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

In an email to the AP, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello wrote: "Commissioner Goodell has taken strong action to ensure that bounties are eliminated from the NFL. We have not heard from Senator Durbin but would be pleased to discuss the matter with him."

Under the bounty system overseen in New Orleans by Williams — who was hired in January by the St. Louis Rams — the targeted players included quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton, Brett Favre and Kurt Warner. "Knockouts" were worth $1,500 and "cart-offs" $1,000, with payments doubled or tripled for the playoffs.

According to the league, Saints defensive captain Jonathan Vilma offered $10,000 to any player who knocked then-Vikings QB Favre out of the 2010 NFC championship game.

Durbin isn't sure when the hearing will happen, but he said it could be two to three weeks from now.

[AOCGUY]

Oh good Lord, doesn't Congress have better things to do, like tackling the national debt, passing a budget, etc. There are already laws on the books in very state making it illegal to intentionally inflict harm on another individual and the NFL, a private industry has the ability (should they chose) to investigate.

[jimatmadison]

99% of the time, Congress getting involved with pro sports is useless at best. This one might be the exception. This involves deliberately injuring other people in exchange for money, and not in the 'fair fight' sort of way that every football collision or boxing match entails.

[smn01]

Durbin is an idiot. Really, he's a complete idiot. This nation has SO MANY enormous issues that are in need of being addressed, and he wants to waste taxpayer resources and legislative time grandstanding about the NFL. He's an incompetent, out of touch clown. Fix out of control federal spending, fix the flight of jobs out of the USA, fix our problem with porous borders, fix another hundred vastly more important things --- then, when all that's taken care of, think about grandstanding about the NFL. Do something useful. He's an idiot...

[retm-w]

Look at the idiotic, things that Issa investrigates.