Here’s what we know for sure: Current St. Louis Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was the ringleader of bounty systems in Washington and New Orleans.
Between 2009 and 2011, Saints players were paid $1,500 for knockouts and $1,000 for cart-offs. There were also improper payments for big plays like fumble recoveries and interceptions. Payments were made out of a pool consisting of fine money from players who violated team rules.
In one particular instance, linebacker Jonathan Vilma offered $10,000 to anyone on his defense that could knock then-Vikings quarterback Brett Favre out of the 2009 NFC Championship game.
Williams’s bounty system wasn’t exactly the best-kept secret in the world, either. Saints coach Sean Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis both knew about the bounties, and neither did anything to stop it. In fact, when team owner Tom Benson instructed Loomis to put an end to the bounties, Loomis simply let them continue.
From the looks of the memo sent by commissioner Roger Goodell to every NFL owner, he isn’t too happy about this one. The situation has become a media frenzy and a public relations nightmare for the league, as the topic is dominating sports talk shows around the nation.
Sports Illustrated football guru Peter King and other experts expect Goodell to hand down serious fines and suspensions to Williams, Peyton and the entire Saints franchise. Some, like Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton, are calling for Williams to be banished from the game.
But is it really as bad as everyone’s making it out to be?
I don’t think so — and neither do quite a few current and former NFL players.
Granted, the bounty system was against player contract rules as well as the rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, but I wholeheartedly disagree with Goodell’s assertion that these bounties “present a serious threat to the integrity of the game.”
Has Goodell forgotten what sport he’s in charge of? This is professional football. I understand that under-the-table pay systems are against league regulations, but a serious threat to the integrity of the game? No way. As Lions safety Chris Harris tweeted: “Football is a violent game n just because someone is hit very hard doesn't mean it's malicious.”
I’m shocked that other people are shocked there was a bounty system at a top-notch NFL defense like the Saints. After all, bounties have been in existence for far longer than Williams has been coaching.
It’s not like any Saints players killed anyone out on the gridiron, or even seriously hurt someone as Todd Bertuzzi did during his vicious attack on Steve Moore during an NHL game in 2004. As Harris noted, football is a violent game, and ferocious hits — whether motivated by extra dollars or not — are an integral part of this game. At most, Williams and the Saints are guilty of padding their pockets with a little off-the-books cash.
It should say something that even Favre, one of football’s all-time greatest and toughest quarterbacks, isn’t bothered by the fact that Vilma put $10,000 on his head before the 2009 conference championship game that New Orleans won en route to their Super Bowl title. He recently told SI.com that he’s “not pissed. It's football. I don't think anything less of those guys.”
Favre understands what Goodell and all the appalled fans out there don’t: This kind of cutthroat attitude and behavior comes with the territory of the NFL.
Former defensive back Matt Bowen, who played for Williams for two years in Washington and was involved in the bounty system, also made several good arguments in his column in the Chicago Tribune last week. Bowen correctly pointed out that “the NFL isn't little league football with neighborhood dads playing head coach. This is the business of winning. If that means stepping over some line, you do it.”
While the attempts to make the game safer and to change the culture of professional football by Goodell and others are admirable, they are also futile. Contact and violence are at the core of the game of football.
This is an era of the NFL where, as Bowen put it, you must “win or else. That's the drill.” This is a mentality that’s not going to change, much like the violent nature of the game isn’t going to change. That’s why the maximum punishment for Williams, as well as Peyton and the Saints, should be no more than what the Patriots were docked for their 2007 “SpyGate” incident ($750,000 fine and the loss of a first-round draft pick).
Right or wrong, bounties will continue to exist, along with concussions, blown-out knees and every other brutal aspect of the gridiron game we Americans love.
Reach the columnist at kjnewma2@asu.edu
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