League comes down hard on Saints coaches

The NFL announced Wednesday that New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton will be suspended for one season without pay for his involvement in the team's bounty program. Saints general manager Mickey Loomis has been suspended for eight games. Former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has been suspended indefinitely.

The team has also been fined $500,000 and will have to give up its second-round picks in the 2012 and 2013 NFL Drafts.

What do you think, does the punishment fit the crime?

I expected the NFL to surprise people with how hard they came down on this, but was even then surprised how strong these measure are.

I do think they're reasonable and proportionate. Having had a quick glance at the findings, it seems a large part of the penalty size is because of:

'a deliberate effort to conceal the program’s existence from league investigators, and a clear determination to maintain the program despite express direction from Saints ownership that it stop as well as ongoing inquiries from the league office.'