Saints Bounty Program

source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

So the league has come out saying as few as 22 to as many as 27 Saints defenders took part in a bounty program... essentially putting bountys on offensive players with intent to hurt. Paying players for hurting opponents.

DIRTY!!!!!

It's a hard hitting game and injuries happen.. but when injuries are strived for.. and PAID for.. that changes things!

This program went on from 2009-2011 which includes their SB run and the (quite obvious to me) hits on Favre during the NFCC that many questioned at the time. I called them dirty then.. now.. PROOF!

What should be their fine/penalty? Draft picks for the team? Williams (D-coord) suspension? Just fines for players/team/coaches?

I think it will be a $750,000 fine and loss of the first round pick. Has to be worse than the Pats penalty for spy gate (think that was $500,000 and a first round pick)

They don't have a first rounder this year just btw.

personally I don't think it's a big deal and I think nearly every team (if not every team) did this, the Saints just got caught. Every time you tackle a guy, you are trying to hurt him, not injure, just hurt. You're goal should be to knock him out of the game. The Steelers Harrison says he tries to hurt the guy every single time....again that isn't the same as injure.

Everytime I checked a guy in hockey, I was trying to hurt him, else I'd just go for the puck but you want him hurt, you want him to flinch the next time, you want your memory to be lodged in his nightmares.

If they paid out for CLEAN/LEGAL hits that put someone out of the game, I'm totally cool with that.

That said, the NFL has to do something about it and it will cost draft picks and cash.

there is a difference between wanting to inflict pain and wanting to injure.

I'm all for big hits that leave a player with after shocks of the hit (for lack of a better term).

I'm not for players getting a bounty on their head and targeted for INJURY... there is a HUGE difference in these two things!

but if the injury happens through the course of a legal hit during the course of normal play, then what's wrong with that.

I do see that it could be a slippery slope though and one might take a shot at a player late or in some other illegal fashion. But if there is no flag or suspension, then a little game within the locker room with a group of guys is all good.

I guess it comes down to, will someone hit someone a little harder because of the extra incentive/bounty? IF so, then for one, that person shouldn't be on the team because he should be trying to hit as hard as possible every time.....legally though.

targeting specific players to injure them to force them out of the game is not "during the course of normal play" and that's precisely what's wrong with it! injuries happen on accident all the time.. with the bounty situation.. injuries no longer were by accident.. they were INTENDED.

Peter King today..

source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I keep coming back, over and over, to something I first reported Friday evening, something I saw in a confidential four-page memo sent to the 32 teams (and obtained from one of those teams) late Friday, detailing the abuses.

"At times, players both pledged significant amounts and targeted particular players,'' the memo said. "For example, prior to a Saints playoff game in January 2010, defensive captain Jonathan Vilma offered $10,000 in cash to any player who knocked Favre out of the game.''

Anyone who thinks the Saints defense didn't go over the line to try to do just that wasn't watching the game -- and didn't see the three plays I reviewed over the weekend. Early in the game, Favre handed off to Percy Harvin, and after the handoff -- a handoff, mind you, a running play -- defensive lineman Bobby McCray ran at Favre and hit him flush in the chin. That brought a 15-yard unnecessary roughness flag from referee Pete Morelli and a fine from the league five days later.

In the third quarter, defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove got 15 yards for pile-driving Favre into the ground after a pass. Four plays later, Morelli missed an egregious high-low hit from McCray and tackle Remi Ayodele; maybe Morelli figured he'd just flagged Hargrove and he couldn't throw a flag every time Favre got mugged. "I thought my ankle was broken after that play,'' Favre told me after the game. "I felt a lot of crunching in there.''

Remember the playoff week before, again McCray was involved in a play that has to raise questions.. and it was a legal hit! Here's where even though some hits were legal.. the intent behind it is needed to paint the whole picture.

After an interception, Kurt Warner is begrudgingly move towards the sideline to make a tackle. Lets be honest though, he wasn't going to get there.. it was more a going through the attempt type move.. he never quite had the angle or speed. Just force him sideline and let teammates bring him down. McCray legally goes to block Warner. Instead of just blocking him out of the play he unloads on him from the side.. and mind you.. mostly cleanly! (might have got his head but he led with the shoulder.. the head just snapped over so hard it made contact) That was the last play of Warners career. He suffered a concussion and retired that off season. So why did McCray unload on him like this? Was this just in the normal course of play? Or was this for a payoff bounty on the side?

the play: (lol @ the site sponsoring it with their lil commercial before hand)



Remember the bountys paid for injuring.. knock them out of the game. So he can't just block him here.. or he misses his payoff chance. All integrity out the window.

You can support that crap above ^ ????

my point is, I bet he hits him just as hard if there was no bounty. You have a free shot on a QB....you take it.

Bounty's should be removed from the game, there is no need for them. I just don't think the majority of players do anything different in a game because of the bounty. It's a next day, film session celebration that like Golic said this morning, will still take place even if no money is exchanging hands. But it needs removed because if one single player would do something extra because of the bounty, then that is too many.

I agree with Jimmy. Yes, maybe some guys would do the same thing if they were or weren't getting paid for it. All of them are getting PAID to play this game... that should be enough incentive to do your job and do it legally. That shot on Warner was ridiculous. Anyone in their right mind knows he's not going to make that tackle. Hell, he wasn't even trying, he was jogging toward the play. Those kinds of hits are what end people's careers. No place for that in the game.

This isn't like paying a fucking hitman to kill your wife or a jealous lover. You seriously have to up the ante to the point where you're paying someone to knock someone out of a game, LEGALLY or ILLEGALLY? Any integrity that you have immediately goes out the window if you succumb to bullshit bounties. No matter what Mike Golic, or Marcellus Wiley say, it's wrong and has no place in professional sports. What makes you think high school and college players don't do the same thing if they see the NFL players doing it? It sets a bad example, especially with everyone cracking down on concussions these days.