Bounty

The Ravens are expected to be relatively quiet at this week's owners meetings at the posh Breakers hotel in Palm Beach, Fla., and that's almost certainly a good thing. That's because these meetings will be dominated by talk of the fallout of Bountygate with the New Orleans Saints, along with continued dialogue about the salary cap penalities leveled against the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys. I arrived at the media room about 45 minutes ago and there is already a full-fledged media stakeout outside awaiting the arrival of Saints coach Sean Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis.

Seated outside Monday afternoon at the posh Breakers hotel, the site of this week's NFL owners meetings, Steve Bisciotti, well-tanned and sharply-dressed, appeared as relaxed as ever. The Ravens owner doesn't have to be consumed by a bounty scandal, like the New Orleans Saints, or a salary cap penalty leveled by the NFL, like the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys. Those two topics dominated the first full day of the meetings. But his organization, which came seconds away from representing the AFC in the Super Bowl just two monthsago, still has plenty on its plate.

The bounty scandal involving the New Orleans Saints has ties to Baltimore. Assistant head coach Joe Vitt, who played linebacker at Towson University on the undefeated 1974 team and coaches that position for the Saints, has been suspended for six games and fined $100,000 by the NFL for his role in the scandal alleging that Saints defensive players were paid for big hits during the 2008 and 2009 seasons. Vitt, who coached at Towson after he graduated and started his NFL coaching career with the Baltimore Colts in 1979, has been with the Saints since 2006.

The NFL has dropped the hammer on the New Orleans Saints. And believe me, it was a heavy hammer. The league on Wednesday afternoon announced the punishment for the Saints in their bounty scandal. (And moments later, the New York Jets announced that they had traded for Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, a sequence of events that surely put Twitter's servers to the test.) With its ruling on the Saints, the NFL made it clear that bounty systems must go the way of leather helmets.

Hit them where it hurts Matt Vensel Baltimore Sun The NFL is going to drop the hammer on the Saints. The NFL handed out $750,000 in fines to the Patriots for Spygate and took away a first-round draft pick. The punishment slapped on the Saints should be even greater, especially considering that the entire chain of command in the organization had been aware of the bounties. If Goodell wants to stomp out these bounties across his league for good, he needs to hit the Saints where it really hurts by taking away multiple draft picks and by suspending coach Sean Payton and GM Mickey Loomis — and also Gregg Williams, now with the Rams — for allowing the bounty system to continue under their watch.

When there was talk about bounties in the NFL at the end of last week, it was only a matter of time before Terrell Suggs's name surfaced. In October 2008, Suggs, a Pro Bowl outside linebacker, said the Ravens put a bounty on Pittsburgh receiver Hines Ward and Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall. A few days later, Suggs said he misspoke and apologized. But once reports came out last week that St. Louis defensive coordinator Gregg Williams had organized bounty systems in New Orleans, Buffalo and Washington, some wanted to know if there had ever been one in Baltimore.

The NFL is poised to drop the hammer on the New Orleans Saints organization after the league revealed Friday that between 22 and 27 defensive players and former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams maintained a bounty pool during the past three seasons to reward Saints defenders when they knocked opponents out of the game due to injury. A NFL investigation found that the Saints targeted players such as quarterbacks Brett Favre and Kurt Warner. If a player was knocked out of a game, the reward was $1,500.

Meet your anglers. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources will host its second Bounty of the Bay event, a five-course dinner celebrating the state's seafood and watermen, on Feb. 28 at the Boatyard Bar & Grill in Annapolis. The event is designed in part to give the public a chance to bring watermen, the public and DNR staff to the same table. Here's a video from the first Bounty of the Bay dinner, which was held last March. "We want to remind people that even during the winter months the bay continues to provide us with ample fishing opportunities and plenty of amazing seafood options," said Steve Vilnit, the DNR's fisheries marketing director.

Soccer is getting so popular! Even the Bolivian squirrel monkeys can't resist. Here they are, gathered around a toy football at the London Zoo on August 18. The zoo has 22 squirrel monkeys, with one adult male, Bounty, having fathered 11 of them. Is 22 enough for a soccer team? (And by the way, is "Bounty" appropriately named or what?)

Howard County's summer dining promotion is under way. Farm-2-Table Summer Restaurant Weeks started Monday and continues through Aug. 8. While its winter restaurant weeks have an international theme, the summer promotion focuses on the county's bounty. Participating restaurants are offering fixed-price menus featuring local produce, products, cut flowers, seafood, herbs, meats, eggs and game, often paired with Maryland wine or local beers. As with the winter promotion, the summer restaurant weeks are an all-inclusive affair, with restaurants allowed to set prices from $10.11 to $40.11.