NFL: Saints maintained 'bounty' program from 2009-2011

Why are there so many Saint's fans in Houston? Always bugs me.

 

Katrina?

I kid.

Has to be from proximity and jobs etc. The who dat thing is annoying. Was funny last season though.

 

I agree, but hopefully this mutes it a little more. Can't have your DC running it, for sure. And head hunting is indefensible. Guys like Roman Harper need to go.

Put a hurt on someone? Awesome. Trying to injure them? Bushleague.

 

why would you kid? there's still a huge number of people who live here as a result of leaving NOLA from Katrina. i know quite a few, myself, and they're all huge Saints fans.

 

Lol, all that just to go get beat.

 

Put me in the game, coach! I'm ready to kill the head!

 

Wow, that's pretty damning. "Go for the head", "go for the ACL", "work the concussion", etc...

The YT comments are very obnoxious especially the ones going "Oh, whoever thinks this is bad obviously has never played football, that kind of speech happens all the time". Really? EVERY coach tells his players to intentionally injure players and try to end their careers? More like "whoever thinks this is fine is obviously a Saints fan"...

What Williams was doing is criminal.

 

"every single one of you...before you get off the pile....affect the head."

wow. i was really excited for NOLA when the Saints won that Super Bowl....but this just sucks.

 

This stuff will continue to happen. The Fans want it and if they don't get it then the NFL will lose fans. I would say confidently that the biggest reason for Football's popularity is it's violence. Eventually when that begins to erode for the safety of it's players the sport will suffer. I'm looking forward to seeing the evolution of the sport and it's fan base. I wonder what it will look like in 2020?

 

I continue to not be shocked at this, and also continue to shake my head at the NFL's (and the fan's) sudden righteous indignation.

We made this sport violent, did little to discourage that violence, even glorified it and enabled it... and NOW we're surprised and outraged at this?

 

The coach speak isn't what is damning, and going after a player's injury is nothing new... however the whole part where he supposedly gestures with his fingers and says "I got the first one" pretty much confirms he put a bounty on Alex Smith.

That is where the line between criminal activity and on-the-job violence gets crossed.

Now you understand why The Rog had no choice but to pound the Saints hard.

 

Yes, the pay-to-play evidence is what is really going to sting.

But I still think this entire episode falls under the "well what the hell did you expect?" category. It's the result of mixing an extremely competitive, lucrative business with an inherently violent sport.

There is no doubt in my mind that if public sentiment hadn't turned against the NFL because of the mounting body-count of retired players, Goodell wouldn't have done a damned thing about this.

 

Goodell's only been the commish for about 5 or 6 years, and he's been pretty hardcore about stamping out all sorts of "bad behavior" ever since he took over.

 

Not buying it. Goodell wasn't going to lift a finger to prevent violence in football until it came back to bite him in the ass either through lawsuits from former players or backlash from the public, both of which have grown exponentially during his tenure. The NFL wasn't nearly proactive enough at protecting players, curbing violence, etc. That may not all fall on Goodell (certainly it doesn't), but nobody is going to convince me he's doing any of this out of the goodness of his heart, and not as CYOA. I'm glad they're doing something, but FFS, this feigned outrage/shock (both from the league and the fans) makes me roll my eyes so damned hard.

 

He sees the NFL as a businessman not a fan. He wants to promote the NFL as a family experience and make as much money for the NFL as possible. He couldn't care less about the history of the league. Eventually when QB's are untouchable and players have to shake hands after tackles people will figure this out.

 

Fans don't want guys to be "going for the Head" in a pile...or trying to tear someone's ACL on purpose.

There is a huge difference between fans wanting hits vs fans wanting players to deliberately injure people. It's a fine line but it's a distinct one.

 

Fans want to win.

They want their sausage, but they don't want to see (or don't care) how it gets made.

Now that the closet door has been opened and all the skeletons have fallen out, they don't have much of a choice but to face the reality of it.

 

I've never seen a sport that players and fans compare to war like football. These men are warroirs and the fans have grown into excepting "casualties". You don't hear fans complaining about the league having too many injuries but you do hear an uproar when the Commish puts in rules to prevent some. It's a mindset and that is the problem with the sport.