New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu reacted today to news that New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton and General Manager Mickey Loomis are taking responsibility for the bounty program.
“I share with a lot of people, it’s a really disappointing story. And I know it’s going to be a very difficult time for the Saints to go through. I was happy to see that the coach and the general manager made a statement today about it, which hopefully clarified some things. And I think we have to await the commissioner’s judgment on it. From what I hear the tendency is going to want to be very harsh about this thing. Commissioner Goodell has been very serious about protecting player safety, and I think the integrity of the game is important. So we’re going to let this thing play itself out and, you know, look forward to what the commissioner’s response is going to be.”
Landrieu says the scandal is not good news for the city.
“You can’t shy away from the fact that it’s a black eye. I mean it would be much better had it not happened. But the important way to handle these things is to just deal with them directly and to deal with them swiftly and to do it with certainty. And I have no doubt that Commissioner Goodell will do that. The NFL is really important to us and the Saints are important to the NFL. And so, you know, we want to get behind it as fast as we can and make sure that, you know, things going forward are better than they have been in the past.”
Saints Coach Sean Payton and General Manager Mickey Loomis are taking "full responsibility" for the bounty program run by former assistant coach Gregg Williams. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will decide an appropriate punishment.
