Me thinks its more of a locker room betting type system that is getting blown out of proportions by the media. Football is a contact sport and defensive guys go out looking to crush players every play.
I'd be willing to bet that it happens on quite a few other teams too. The Saints and Williams are just the first to get busted, and NFL will make an example of them.
Former safety/linebacker Coy Wire is saying Williams did this in Buffalo in the early 2000's when he was the head coach. Ruben Brown, OL, is saying the opposite. It is a rule that headhunting/bounties cannot be financially rewarded, but I am sure it happens "under the table" on many teams. Money destroys people, man. Sad. Sal
You think the NFL would go through the trouble of spending 3 years investigating (50,000 pages of documents) if this was something as trivial as a few players making some bets with each other? Now I understand why there were so many dirty hits on Favre during the NFC Title game in 2010...too bad the refs let them get away with it instead of doing their job
These guys are paid millions to go out and tackle each other as hard as they can. I just feel like its not that huge of a deal. Performance based pay if you will. Its a tough mean sport, and it always has been. At the rate they are pussifying the game today, within 10 years QBs will be off limits for any contact whatsoever probably.
To me it is part of the game. I still remember being a kid and watching Joe Theisman get his leg snapped by Lawrence Taylor. I think there shouldn't be an issue as long as the hits are legal.
Being made an example of something that has always go on and probably always will. Blown out of proportion IMO especially with the use of the word "BOUNTY". Guys aren't going to try to tackle someone any different with or without this bounty stuff. Since this story broke I've seen ESPN play about 100 hits by Saints defenders. Not one of them was illegal. If someone went out and took a blatant cheap shot at someone to intentionally injure him, that's a complete different story. I just don't see that to be the case here. By the way if that was the case there are plenty of opportunities during the course of a game to take someone out illegally.
I can't thank the guy enough who took out Trent Green in the preseason back in '98. Kurt Warner came in and won the super bowl after that happened. It's been going on for a LOOOOOOOONG time.
