METAIRIE, La. — Sean Payton apologized Friday for the bounty system under which Saints players were offered payouts for big hits on opponents, saying he takes “full responsibility” for the program that operated for three years under his watch.

“I share and fully support the league’s concerns and goals on player safety,” the New Orleans coach said in a written statement released by the team. “It is, and should be paramount.

“Respecting our great game and the NFL shield is extremely important to me,” Payton added, referring to the league’s famous logo.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Wednesday suspended Payton for the 2012 season, effective April 1, one of several unprecedented penalties he issued against the Saints.

Payton said that, as head coach, he should take full responsibility for an operation which the NFL says offered improper cash bonuses for blows that either knocked targeted star players out of the game or left them needing help off the field.

The NFL has said Payton initially lied to NFL investigators about the program, at first denying its existence, and also instructed his defensive assistants to lie. The league also slapped an eight-game suspension on general manager Mickey Loomis and a six-game suspension on assistant head coach Joe Vitt, who also coaches linebackers.

Former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who left the Saints after last season to join the St. Louis Rams, ran the bounty program and has been suspended indefinitely. Goodell also fined the Saints $500,000 and took away second-round draft choices in 2012 and 2013.

The NFL has said the bounty program started in 2009, Williams’ first season, when the Saints also won their only Super Bowl. The league also found that the program continued through 2011 even after NFL officials told the Saints to check into it and put a stop to it if they found anything improper was going on.

Payton issued one earlier written apology a few days after the NFL first released the findings of its probe on March 2.