NFL: Tarkenton: Bounties Not Part Of The Game In Any Way

[cooperbh]

Football's Bounty Hunters Must Be Clipped
Payments for causing injury are unacceptable. Gregg Williams should never be seen in the NFL again.

By FRAN TARKENTON

Football is a tough, physical game. It is violent. But there is a line between being violent and being vicious. Former New Orleans Saints Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams crossed that line when he established a bounty system that rewarded players—not for tough, clean football plays but for injuring other players.

While coaching the New Orleans defense the last three seasons, Mr. Williams paid bonuses to players for knocking opponents out of the game. The rewards were $1,500 for a knockout, and $1,000 if the player had to be carted off the field. In the playoffs, rewards doubled and tripled.

Following his coach's lead, linebacker Jonathan Vilma offered a $10,000 bounty to any Saints player who could knock Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre out of the NFC Championship Game during the Saints Super Bowl run in the 2009 season.

Former players from Mr. Williams's previous career stops in Washington and Buffalo have come forward to describe similar schemes he ran for those teams, as well.

These bounty systems are despicable.

I played football professionally for 18 years. I played against some of the toughest men imaginable. Mean Joe Greene. Deacon Jones. Bob Lilly. Ray Nitschke. Dick Butkus. Jack Youngblood. And I risked getting hit more than any other quarterback of my day. No one ran more than I did—forwards, backwards, and side-to-side.

But in those 18 years, I only missed five games due to injury. My opponents wanted to beat me, and they certainly wanted to hit me to achieve that goal—but no one wanted to hurt another player deliberately. For all our competitive fire, and despite that strong desire to destroy our opposition, as professional NFL players we were part of a brotherhood. There was no joy in seeing someone injured on the field of play, even if it gave our team a better chance to win. After all, we wanted to prove that we were the best; and to be the best, you have to beat the best—not beat the JV.

But with the bounty system run by Mr. Williams, football as a fierce but honorable competition is dropped on its head.

Over the past few days, there have been many current players and NFL analysts saying that this story is no big deal. Every team does this, they say.

That is ridiculous. Bounties are not part of the game in any way.

Since news of this story broke last week, I have talked to dozens of former teammates and opponents. On my Sirius XM radio show Monday night, I talked to the toughest of them all, Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik—who played every snap on both sides of the ball for the Philadelphia Eagles. The response was unanimous. They did not put bounties on other players, and those who do so are not tough—they are cowards.

Peyton Manning's neck injuries, which kept him out all of last season, may have something to do with a vicious hit during a game against the Washington Redskins when Mr. Williams was coaching there. It was one of the worst hits I have ever seen, as one player tackles him low from the side, before another hits him high head-on, bending him backwards and ripping his helmet off in the process.

During the Saints' Super Bowl run, opposing quarterbacks Kurt Warner and Brett Favre were hit repeatedly. Mr. Warner went flying through the air and was briefly knocked out of the game after one particularly vicious hit. Mr. Favre was hit on almost every play, including many inexcusable late hits coming well after throwing the ball or even handing it off to a running back. That was the last game Mr. Warner ever played.

This is a particularly nightmarish scenario for the NFL in light of the league's concussion problem. For years, the league denied that football hits and concussions had a connection to health problems in former players, but now studies have shown that there are devastating long-term consequences from head trauma.

Football is a violent, dangerous game that leads to terrible injuries even when the players are not deliberately trying to knock one another out of the game. Players, like all people, respond to incentives. When you incentivize them to get opponents carried off the field on a stretcher, they are going to attempt to cause serious injuries.

This opens the NFL up to serious legal consequences and risks a fan backlash. Audiences love hard competition. They do not want to see gang warfare on a football field.

The NFL has to come down hard on this scandal because every team, coach and player needs to get the message that this is not ok. Gregg Williams should never be seen in the NFL again. Others in the Saints organization who knew about the bounties and did not stop them, including General Manager Mickey Loomis and Head Coach Sean Payton, both of whom I like and respect, must also be severely punished. Players who participated should face consequences, and the Saints 2009 Super Bowl championship will be forever tarnished.

These are harsh punishments, but the game of football must purge itself of this heinous blight.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...n_LEADTop#

[cooperbh]

People who defend this practice should be ashamed of themselves.

[ATLBound]

(03-07-2012 02:04 PM)cooperbh Wrote:  People who defend this practice should be ashamed of themselves.

I agree. I wish I could call into Mike and Mike and give some knowledge to Golic and Marcellus Wiley who was on there the other day. They keep talking about legal hits. But what the bounty encourages are ILLEGAL hits. The after the whistle hits and blows to the knees and head. Those hits are encourage when you oay somebody to injure another player.

I don't see how their thick skulls don't comprehend that.

[AsylumGuido]

(03-07-2012 02:18 PM)ATLBound Wrote:  I agree. I wish I could call into Mike and Mike and give some knowledge to Golic and Marcellus Wiley who was on there the other day. They keep talking about legal hits. But what the bounty encourages are ILLEGAL hits. The after the whistle hits and blows to the knees and head. Those hits are encourage when you oay somebody to injure another player.

I don't see how their thick skulls don't comprehend that.

They are saying that the bounties were illegal, but the hits themselves were not, for the most part. Several teams had more illegal hits over the past three years than did the Saints. Illegal hits are going to happen regardless of a bounty plan or not. The Wall Street Journal researched every play of the Saints over the past three years.

Little Booty in Saints' Bounties

A Wall Street Journal review of every regular- and postseason Saints game since 2009 makes clear what the NFL report didn't: Seldom did a Saints-inflicted injury force an opponent to leave the field.

In 48 regular-season and six postseason games, such incidents occurred only 18 times. The Saints player involved in the largest number of those cases was safety Roman Harper. That number was four.

....

The Saints can't even be classified as the league's dirtiest team. When it came to personal fouls—the most violent of on-field infractions—the Saints last season tallied 24, fifth-most in the NFL. Since 2009, the team has been whistled for 60 personal fouls, the sixth-highest figure.

----------------------------------------------------

Once again, the fact that bounties were being paid was absolutely wrong, but what was happening on the field was well within the norm of everyday NFL football. That's what these people like Golic, Wiley and several others are trying to point out.

[cooperbh]

(03-07-2012 02:36 PM)AsylumGuido Wrote:  Illegal hits are going to happen regardless of a bounty plan or not.

Unatural deaths are going to happen regardless of a murder plan or not.

Therefore, according to swamp logic, the crime of attempted murder in the first degree should be viewed and punished the same as manslaughter.

For those who still don't (or won't) get it, this is about intent. A player can commit an illegal hit without having the intent to hurt someone. You can't have a bounty program with monetary rewards paid out for "cart offs" and "kill shots" without the intent to hurt someone.

Bottom line: The Saints had an illegal program in place whose sole aim was the serious injury of opposing players. How successful they were in achieving that aim is completely irrelevant.

[AsylumGuido]

(03-07-2012 04:07 PM)cooperbh Wrote:  Unatural deaths are going to happen regardless of a murder plan or not.

Therefore, according to swamp logic, the crime of attempted murder in the first degree should be viewed and punished the same as manslaughter.

For those who still don't (or won't) get it, this is about intent. A player can commit an illegal hit without having the intent to hurt someone. You can't have a bounty program with monetary rewards paid out for "cart offs" and "kill shots" without the intent to hurt someone.

Bottom line: The Saints had an illegal program in place whose sole aim was the serious injury of opposing players. How successful they were in achieving that aim is completely irrelevant.

No, they had a program in place that was partially aimed at knocking players out of games and they weren't very successful at it. The primary purpose was to reward big plays such as forced fumble, picks and sacks. One part of it was very, very wrong. The rest was also clearly against league rules, but far less egregious.

As far as intent to hurt, every defensive player in the league intends to hurt their opponents on every play. Note I said hurt, not injure.

[illmusic]

I think people are getting caught up in semantics honestly...although word of scrums going on in piles like attempting to twist Adrian's bad leg start to hit harder against the organization.

[Radical]

(03-07-2012 06:21 PM)AsylumGuido Wrote:  No, they had a program in place that was partially aimed at knocking players out of games and they weren't very successful at it. The primary purpose was to reward big plays such as forced fumble, picks and sacks. One part of it was very, very wrong. The rest was also clearly against league rules, but far less egregious.

As far as intent to hurt, every defensive player in the league intends to hurt their opponents on every play. Note I said hurt, not injure.

And that doesn't make it any less wrong. As for the last line, that's just semantics.

[AsylumGuido]

(03-07-2012 06:59 PM)Radical Wrote:  And that doesn't make it any less wrong. As for the last line, that's just semantics.

Not really. As the football saying goes, "You can play hurt, but you can't play injured."

And, I never said it wasn't wrong. They should have had that same approach without the need for a reward system. I despise Gregg Williams for bringing that crap to the team.

[cooperbh]

(03-07-2012 07:32 PM)AsylumGuido Wrote:  I despise Gregg Williams for bringing that crap to the team.

A certain GM and head coach could have stopped it at any time with just one word. They said nothing. How do you feel about them?