Bountygate

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Bountygate was a National Football League (NFL) scandal involving an illegal program in which the New Orleans Saints placed bounties on opposing players. If a targeted player was injured and knocked out of a game, a bonus would be paid to the defensive player that made the hit. A slush fund for paying the bounties was found to have operated from the 2009 season (the year in which the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV) to the 2011–12 playoffs. League commissioner Roger Goodell responded with some of the most severe sanctions in the league's history and among the most severe punishments for in-game misconduct in North American professional sports history. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was suspended indefinitely, though this would be overturned the following year. Head coach Sean Payton was suspended for the entire 2012 season—the first time since Chuck Fairbanks in 1978 that a head coach had been suspended and the first time a head coach was suspended by the league. General manager Mickey...

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