All the Bounty of the Saints

You nearly murdered that guy! Pound it!

You might be surprised, but I'm completely OK with this bounty program Gregg Williams has seemingly had wherever he's coached. Mainly because I know that this kind of thing is just a part of sports and has been for a long time. Yes, putting up as much as $50,000 in a season is a lucrative amount of compensation, but players in every sport in the world have been encouraged to injure opposing players since the beginning of time.

For the uninitiated: An NFL investigation found that New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and 22-27 defensive players contributed to a bounty program rewarding the injuring of opposition players. Sometimes specific players, often quarterbacks, were targeted. "Knock outs" paid out at $1000 each, while "cart-offs" paid out at $1500.



I saw this kind of thing happen as a player of both Little League, middle school and high school baseball, as well as when I played basketball for Willard Middle School.  Our coach offered a candy item for every "good foul." A good foul was anytime forcing an opponent to shoot two foul shots will be harder for him than the shot he would have otherwise gotten. So basically, if a guy's got a wide open lane to the hoop, foul him as hard as you can so he doesn't still make his shot, and you get a bag of M&M's.

In baseball, I got nothing but high fives when, as a catcher, I called for my pitchers to hit someone on the other team in retaliation for something earlier in the game or even from a previous game. Did they pay me money? No. But it was encouraged and congratulated when you do it without getting anyone on your team thrown out of the game. I got a game ball once for "winning" a collision at home plate, despite the fact that I wasn't supposed to be blocking the plate at that age.

These are things that I never heard talked about outside the locker room, and something I haven't mentioned to anyone until now. I had to explain it to my parents as they looked over my should as I was writing this post.

Whether compensation comes in the form of money or kudos, this kind of thing has always been a part of sports from the lowest to the highest levels. And there is nothing stated about the bounties being for dirty hits. They're about hitting guys hard enough to hurt them, which happens WAY more on clean plays than not. I haven't seen it specifically addressed whether or not Williams' bounties were paid even if the hit was dirty (late, low, etc), so I'm not going to say for sure there was nothing dirty on-field about the Saint's bounty program.

There's an element of it in every sport. Pat Reilly fined his Knicks every time they helped on opponent up off the floor. this is freaking football. seriously, it's 90% hurting the other guy, 10% scoring points. That's the game.

Don't believe me? Ok. Listen to some professional football players.

@shawnemerriman: Why is this a big deal now? Bounties been going on forever. A "Bounty" left me with a torn PCL and LCL in my knee ...  -- Bills LB Shawne Merriman

@damienwoody: This 'bounty' program happens all around the league...not surprising

@damienwoody: The bigger question w/ this 'bounty' issue is.....WHO SNITCHED?!?!

@damienwoody: @joey0314 I'm just speaking from a guy that was in the lockerroom....these things happened, not saying it was right, but it happened  -- Ex-Pats OL Damien Woody

@ChrisHarrisNFL: Football is a violent game n just because someone is hit very hard doesn't mean it's malicious  -- Lions S Chris Harris

@ShaunPhillips95: I think people forget that football is a contact sport. If you don't wanna get hurt don't play. I was always told keep your head on a swivel  -- Chargers LB Shaun Phillips

So it looks like none of them really care or are surprised at all. There's no shortage of players who don't give a shit about this. You know what players do care?

@ChrisWarcraft: I mean seriously, think about it. You're talking about paying someone to INTENTIONALLY injure someone else. They put people in JAIL for that

@ChrisWarcraft: And let me make it perfectly clear - it doesn't matter WHAT team you play for. That kind of thing should NEVER happen.  -- Vikings P Chris Kluwe

@jayfeely: No place in NFL for bounties. Physical play is an attribute but malicious intent should be removed  -- Cardinals K Jay Feely

Fucking punters and kickers. In an argument about football, having the punters and kickers take your side is the worst possible thing. Brett Favre, one of the confirmed player-specific targets, told Sports Illustrated, "I'm not pissed. It's football. I don't think anything less of those guys." Kurt Warner, another confirmed target, felt the same.

@TroyAikman: Have to agree with Kurt. RT @ProFootballTalk: Kurt Warner thinks bounties have been part of the league for a long time.

That's Troy Aikman, who was concussed and otherwise injured so often in his career that he HAD to have been a target of something similar. He then posted this picture of himself being hit low.

One of just 35,000 injuries Aikman incurred in his career.

The problem the Saints have is that, whether or not it's dirty and something that should be globally abhorred, it is against the NFL's rules. You are not allowed to financially compensate players for individual on field achievements. I believe the wording of the rule is something like "on-field incentives." So the NFL is within its rights to punish the organization, to punish Williams and head coach Sean Payton, who is said to have known about this program. What's more, this story came to light at a time when the NFL is really trying to get a handle on the press around the league's culture of violence. Commissioner Roger Goddell has made it a league mission over the past few years to try to eliminate the some of the brutal violence in the sport (mainly in the form of head shots). He's been quicker to fine players, quicker to suspend them, and he oversaw a change in the way the helmet-to-helmet rule is called.

So in all likelihood, the NFL will punish the coaches and management involved, and in my opinion, this will be a PR move by the NFL, rather than a true belief that this kind of violent intent is wrong.

Violent intent is all over every sport, and it's something that's been there forever. In hockey, players can straight up fight each other, something that would get you arrested in the real world. Basketball players are clearly told to foul particular players like Dwight Howard an absurd amount of  times. Even in a certifiably violent sport like MMA, there are rewards for being even more violent.

The UFC awards Submission of the Night and Knockout of the Night, which comes with a cash payout of $50,000 or $100,000. Fighters paid a standard $25,000 to show up and another $25,000 can double their pay by winning one of these awards.

You start trying to take this kind of edge away from sports and you lose the very thing that attracts such big crowds and big fat bundles of money to sports in the first place.