Still not sure what happened. Did some folks start posting inappropriate things in an NFL thread, get reprimanded by mods, and then go after the mods in an even worse way in Private Messages?
If so, I doubt if it was more than a few posters. Seems like that is what PermaBans are made for.
And if it is burdensome for the moderators to handle, either because of workload or harshness, there are plenty of others of us who would be willing to do our share to help protect the quality of our CF community.