Saints At Fault Bounty Program Analysis

Are the New Orleans saints neglectful for participating in a bounty program that has caused many injuries to other National Football League (NFL) players? Allegedly the defensive coordinator was appointed as the mastermind of the program where coaches and players of the New Orleans Saints were at fault for receiving money for allegedly intending to injure other players. Although, the Saints player did admit to playing a pool involving for big hits, they did deny any wrongdoing to intentionally hurt other NFL players. “The original penalty on the players by Roger Goodell, the commissioner has to consider whether any part of his initial penalty was due to violations of the NFL salary cap” (Davidson, Forsythe, 2013). Are the Saints at fault

For NFL, such bounty programs are not favored and frowned upon by the NFL. That is because bounties are called non-contract bonuses. These bounty programs are not part of the NFL agreed contract. The Saint allegedly received certain amount monies for certain injuries that they had subjected to opposing teams. “The NFL’s investigation revealed that the pool reached $50,000 or more during the 2009 playoffs, and players were paid $1500 for a “knockout” and $1000 for a “cart-off” with payouts doubling or tripling during the playoffs” (Klemko, 2012). Cart-offs is when the opposing teams is carried off the field. For any business regardless of its nature, it is poor ethics to promote violence or harm on another person for a competitive reason. This can induce a poor reputation for business owners or sports leagues by rewarding associates to harm others. Such behavior portrays bad morals. Moral Minimum Approach states “business’s duty to make a profit and avoid causing harm to others. If it cause harm to others, it has a duty to correct that harm or compensate those who were injured” (Davidson, Forsythe, 2013). After the investigation, the Saints were sued from multiple NFL players who had suffered an injury during the bounty gate scandal. A salary cap “in professional sports is an agreement or rule that places a limit on the

The Salary cap for the NFL is an agreement/rule that is put into place for a limit of money that the sports league can receive. Because the Saints bounty program violated the NFL constitution they also violated the rules surrounding the Salary cap. The New Orleans Saints lacked the behavior that is desired for the NFL and portrayed bad ethics by Saints ultimate decision makers. When we look at the Utilitarianism negative impacts from a business context it states that it “may result in harm if the organization does not accurately predict the consequences of the act” (Davidson, Forsythe, 2013). It is evident that the coaches and players did not think about the impact it would have on them, or their opposing teams but overall how it can impact all those who are involved directly or indirectly. We can also look into the Game Theory for this investigation if the players truly were not aware of the rules for the bounties that were set in place. If that is the truth, then there is nothing ethically wrong with how the players played in the game. However; knowing the rules and contracts set by the NFL and participating in the pools is still unethical for any business or sports league to