NFL commissioner Roger Goodell shared an interesting tidbit about the New Orleans Saints bounty investigation while meeting with the media on Monday at the NFL owners meetings. Goodell said that he sent league lawyer Jeff Pash and head of security Jeff Miller down to New Orleans on the Friday before the Saints' playoff game against the Detroit Lions. Pash and Miller met with Saints owner Tom Benson, and this was the purpose of the conversation:
"The point was to make it clear that we had new and credible information that a bounty program may exist and that he should make it very clear beginning with the game the next day that there should be no bounty system in play while our investigation continues."
This was actually the Lions' second game against the Saints in the 2011 season. During the regular season, the Lions lost to the Saints in a penalty-filled game by a score of 31-17. It's not known if any Lions players were the target of bounties in that game, but we do know that Matthew Stafford was not one of the four quarterbacks mentioned in the report that came out last week.
For a look at what penalties the Saints received for operating a bounty program, check out our post from last week.
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