More Bounty Nonsense

It's really no surprise that the "talking heads" are all over the Saints' cheating ways. There's no denying the serious nature of it all. It's just really bothering me that they can't keep a couple of things straight.

First of all, the bounties are solely the incentives to inflict bodily harm. The encouragement to injure opponents. The desire to literally take players out of the game. The bounties in question have absolutely nothing to do with the incentives for interceptions, sacks, fumbles, even hard hits. Yet they keep grouping them with the serious bounties, the real bounties. Whenever there is a discussion about this mess, current and former players and coaches, the media, pretty much everyone speaks of all teams using these incentives for big plays on the field. Those are not the problem and they in no way justify intentionally injuring other players. The next time these clowns mention incentives for big on-field plays I may slip into a coma. These incentives aren't part of the problem and they shouldn't be part of the discussion.

Second of all, people scoff at the dollar amounts of these bounties for taking players out of the games. They wonder why anyone would do these terrible things for anywhere from $100 to a couple thousand. Some might more understand Jonathan Vilma's offer of $10,000 to anyone that can get Brett Favre out of the game. That's a bit more hefty but wouldn't come close to paying the likely fine for the hit. It should be obvious that none of this is about the money. It could be a buck and the results would be the same. The desire to injure would still be the same. It could be for a dinner or a beer. It's all about the appreciation from your teammates. Their praise and applause.

Football is a violent game. That's part of the appeal to playing the game and to watching it. Despite all that violence there's a great deal of respect among the people that play football for the people that play football. They realize that they are all in this physical, dangerous game together. Players are so big, physical, strong and fast that they can literally kill each other. The rules and, most importantly, the respect that they have for each other prevent that slaughter. The bounties that the Saints put down blow that respect all to hell. Any integrity is gone.

Hall of Fame defensive back Rod Woodson made a great point when he said that a good coach and good football players shouldn't need motivation through these ridiculous bounties to perform.