On stupidity alone, the Saints deserve to lose their first-round draft pick this year – except that they’ve already traded it to the New England Patriots. That shouldn’t stop commissioner Roger Goodell from taking a couple of picks this year or taking the 2013 first-rounder as the starting point for punishment.
Yes, that’s the starting point. From there, the Saints deserve a $500,000 fine as a team (hopefully that doesn’t cut into the Drew Brees contract fund), head coach Sean Payton deserves a $250,000 fine, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, now with the St. Louis Rams, deserves a $200,000 fine and each of the assistant coaches who participated deserve to at least be docked $50,000. On top of that, Loomis deserves to be fined and/or fired since he disobeyed an order from the owner.
That’s all in line with roughly what the punishment New England received in 2007 for the Spygate scandal.