Goodell denies appeals from Payton, others

NFL: Roger Goodell sent a message to every coach and player in the NFL: safety first. The league commissioner stuck with his punishments for New Orleans’ pay-for-pain bounties on Monday, rejecting Saints coach Sean Payton’s appeal of a season-long suspension.

An NFL investigation found that, under Payton’s watch, an assistant ran a program offering cash payouts for hits that knocked targeted opponents out of games or hurt them so badly they needed help getting to the sideline.

Next on Goodell’s agenda: discipline for players involved in the bounty program that began in 2009, the season the Saints won the Super Bowl.

Given recent history, at least some of those penalties are likely to be tough, too.

The Saints case represents perhaps the starkest example yet of the change that the NFL has undergone since medical research and media reports on the long-term damage suffered by football players through concussions began to gain attention.

As recently as October 2009, while testifying before Congress, Goodell did not acknowledge a link between head injuries on the field and brain diseases later in life. And hundreds of NFL retirees are now suing the league for health problems they say began with their playing careers.

Yet the league has taken a series of steps to better protect players in the past couple of years, and just last month expanded the definition of “defenseless players” who may not be hit in the head or neck and cannot be hit by someone leading with a helmet.

While NFL veterans say off-the-books incentives have been around for years, and some current players claim tough talk about hitting opponents where they are injured happens in locker rooms throughout the league, Goodell responded to the Saints case by handing out unprecedented penalties.

In addition to upholding Payton’s suspension, which begins next Monday and runs through the Super Bowl in February 2013 – by coincidence, in New Orleans – Goodell also affirmed suspensions of eight games for Saints general manager Mickey Loomis and six games for assistant head coach Joe Vitt. He also kept in place a $500,000 fine for the franchise and the loss of draft picks this year and next.

Former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who left the Saints in January to join the St. Louis Rams, ran the bounty program and has been suspended indefinitely. He did not appeal.

Suspensions for New Orleans players who participated in the bounty pool could be coming within days.

• Former Bears QB McMahon being sued: In an attempt to recover $104 million, federal authorities have sued former Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon and eight others involved in a now-failed bank that was at the center of the campaign for President Obama’s old U.S. Senate seat.

Seven former directors – including McMahon – and two officers of Broadway Bank ignored federal warnings about just how risky some of the bank’s loans were, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. lawsuit filed last month.

McMahon, the brash leader of the Bears, led the team to the 1986 Super Bowl victory over New England. He is now among dozens of retired players who have sued the NFL, blaming the league for concussion-related dementia and brain trauma.

Also named in the FDIC lawsuit are relatives of former Illinois treasurer and Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias. Giannoulias, who was an officer at the bank that was founded by his father before being elected state treasurer in 2006, is not named in the lawsuit. But the allegations of shady loans at the bank that was shutdown in 2010 dogged him throughout his unsuccessful Senate bid against Mark Kirk that year.

Jazz snap streak of shorthanded Spurs

NBA: Devin Harris scored 25 points, including 11 straight in the fourth quarter, and the Utah Jazz halted the San Antonio Spurs’ 11-game winning streak and boosted their own playoff hopes with a 91-84 in Salt Lake City.

Paul Millsap added 18 points for the Jazz, who avenged a 114-104 road loss Sunday to the Spurs.

Utah (30-28) is injury riddled but the Spurs (40-15) were short-handed in a different way, choosing not to bring stars Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili for the rematch. Coach Gregg Popovich wanted that trio, averaging 46.8 points, to rest.

Gary Neal and Tiago Splitter scored 14 points apiece, and DeJuan Blair added 13 in San Antonio’s first loss since March 17.

• Grizzlies hold off Clippers: Marc Gasol scored 18 points, Rudy Gay had 16 and the Grizzlies held on to beat the Los Angeles Clippers 94-85 in Memphis, Tenn.

Mike Conley and O.J. Mayo added 13 each for Memphis, which won for the eighth time in 10 games and moved one-half game behind the Clippers for the fourth seed in the Western Conference.

Chris Paul led Los Angeles with 21 points and six assists, while Blake Griffin had 19 points.

• Blazers fall to Rockets: Goran Dragic scored 22 points and the Houston Rockets completed a perfect four-game road trip with a 94-89 victory over the Trail Blazers in Portland.

Chase Budinger added 15 points off the bench for the Rockets, who beat the Bulls, Lakers and Kings before visiting Portland.

Houston (32-25), in sixth place in the Western Conference, has won six of its last eight games overall.

LaMarcus Aldridge had 20 points and six rebounds for the Portland (27-31).

Baylor programs under scrutiny

NCAA: The Baylor basketball programs may be in trouble with the NCAA after an investigation found that coaches made more than 1,200 impermissible calls and text messages to prospects over a 29-month span dating to 2008.

<p>ESPN.com reported the violations, citing an NCAA report it had obtained. The report lists a number of self-imposed penalties, including barring women’s coach Kim Mulkey from recruiting off campus in July and fewer scholarships for both programs. The NCAA may dole out harsher penalties.

The Baylor women’s team won the national championship last week, capping the first 40-0 season in NCAA history. The men’s team, coached by Scott Drew, won a school-record 30 games and reached an NCAA regional final, where it lost to eventual national champion Kentucky.

According to the report, AP National player of the year Brittney Griner’s recruitment was part of the investigation into the women’s program.