Saints being caught is a huge difference. Favre's recent comments do bring into question how wide-spread this is but there's always a difference between known guilt and mere speculation. NFL needs to send a message.
Its a violent, physical sport that involves 1 player colliding into another. Usually the goal of the defender is to knock the snot out of the offensive player. Because that player isnt making financial bets with his teammates on how many KO's he has, how is that any different?
Sure Saints got caught but you're naive if you think the idea these players have arent shared with other teams or even individual players. NFL countdown dedicates a segment of their show where even soap box Mr Morality Tommy Jackson is being seen screaming on cue...YOU GOT JACKED UP.
What the Saints were intending to do is...JACKING UP PLAYERS. What message do you want sent? To not get caught? Ok, fine. But you wont be able to tell if a player intent is to knock out a player.
Because its out there NFL will send a message. As a fan? I couldnt care less what the Saints did. Or if teams or other players have their own thing going on that hasnt been revealed. I like seeing a guy laying on the ground after a nasty hit. I like seeing a guy wobble left to right after a devastating hit.
I wouldnt be suprise if this practice is widespread in the NFL. Other teams are probably just better at keeping things quiet. I wouldnt be suprised if this scandal ends up being a career ender for Williams.
The defensive player should be trying to make a secure tackle, maybe force a fumble. If the ballcarrier is hurt that should be the unfortunate side-effect, not the goal. You should not be incentivizing dirty play. Regardless of what you or any other fan finds entertaining the NFL has a responsibility to it's players to address a potentially major player safety issue. For those that bring it up, I'm not saying this is or isn't widespread, it's not the kind of thing NFL players are going to brag about. I'm saying the punishment should be severe because these bounties are wrong and the NFL should at least try to discourage it.
Too many players looking for the knockout punch instead of wrapping up and making a clean tackle. Nothing is worse than a defensive player celebrating a big hit after the offense just picked up a first down. I am sure a lot of you are sick of seeing your team go for the big hit/fumble and instead you see the offense go 30 yards passed where they should of been tackled in the first place. Instead of paying the players to hurt someone, they should of paid them too make a fundamental tackle.
Story seems way overblown. This is mainly a result of nothing else going on in sports for talk shows to talk about. No NFL or MLB right now, still a week until march madness tournament, NBA is still far away from playoffs, no olympics or anything else going on. Basically slowest time in sports right now and NFL is the biggest draw for sports radio.
Football is football, it's a rough game, don't know why this is such a shocker to some.
Now comparing this story to UFC (admittedly not a great comparison), on every UFC fight card there is a knockout of the night and submission of the night bonus given out by the UFC fighters by the UFC. The purpose is so instead of fighters wanting to win a boring decision victory they will put in extra effort to try and knock their opponent out. Their opponent could be knocked completely unconscious and have doctors come in to take a look at them or they could be put in such a nasty submission that their arm or knee is never the same and it is celebrated by a bonus. Reason is because that's what both parties are going out to do and as long as it's done clean and fair, that’s the game.
I kind of think the NFL agreed this was no big deal as long as it didn't get out. The Saints are ****ed, they were told to stop, they didn't, it leaked out. It's hard for Goodell to sell safety if bounties are ok, and it also opens the league to lawsuits about players health which is about the last thing the NFL wants to happen.
Why the Saints would continue what is a pretty useless policy after being warned to stop is beyond me. They are going to get hammered.
i don't get the saints thinking of continuing this when they were told not to, especially when you can get same results by offering "bonuses" for turnovers, etc. and achieve the same thing. There is some sort of cognitive dissonance going on to not think that with players changing every year, coaches changing and with Goodell having a hard on for player safety, that this was a good risk.
Re: saints had a "bounty" fund
