There are many problems in today’s world. People die. Despotism reigns. Chaos flourishes. In the Grand Scheme, athletic competitions seem trivial, at best a mere allegory for life: there is a start, a meaning (goal), and an end (death), unless the game is baseball and the contest, technically, never would end where the two teams could not break a tie in extra innings.

   If we set aside for a moment the question of whether there is importance for sports in the Grand Scheme, next is the question whether anyone should be banned for life from a particular sport. The movies "Field of Dreams" and "Eight Men Out" made a good case for why "Shoeless" Joe Jackson should not have been banned for life from baseball.

   All this said, I believe Gregg Williams, if allegations are true, former defensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints®, should be banned for life from the game of football. Williams is accused of offering bounties to defensive players who put big hits on opponents’ players. Williams also was a defensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins®. The neck injury Peyton Manning sustained that apparently has led to his departure from the Colts®, occurred during a game against the Redskins®.

   (Realize, for a second, that "redskins" is not a mere reference to people who were indigenous to this continent when Europeans arrived here a few hundred years back. The term applied to the skins of those people brought in for bounties. Money was paid for the skins of human beings in the same manner as for the pelt of an animal.)

   There are a lot of ways in which a football player can be injured. Enough of those ways are accidental. To try to put a player out of a game with injury—maybe end his career—is unsportsmanlike. Football is a brutal sport whose players fight and scrap for years to play in the NFL®. Should they make it to the NFL®, their careers average less than four years. Seventy percent (70%) file bankruptcy within five (5) years of retirement.

   The taxpayers of Marion County and the State of Indiana have subsidized the Indianapolis Colts®. We have built two stadia. We paid a penalty to Colts’ ownership for our audacity in building a new stadium at the owner’s insistence. (There was a penalty clause in the lease for The Hoosier Dome®.) Manning was a huge investment of the Colts® and our community.

   The NFL® is investigating this matter. If the allegations are true, then Williams should be banned from football for life. To be consistent, we also should ban for life all of the players who carried out his instructions and collected any "bounties" Furthermore, we should order any sums received forfeited. As fans we should demand, and expect, that owners who profited from this matter forfeit any profits they made on games where these instructions were issued and carried out. The Saints®  and Redskins® should forfeit draft picks for at least one year.

   The NFL® is taking a typically brave stand on this matter. I am certain that in its quest to protect players, the League gave the same consideration to issues related to player concussions, the general level of violence in the game, and the manner in which ownership gouges players and fans for money at every turn. If any owners had complicity in this affair, I am sure the NFL® will mete out equal punishment.