NFL: Saints defense had 'bounty' fund

ESPN ^ | March 2, 2012 | Adam Schefter

[toast]

Between 22 and 27 defensive players on the New Orleans Saints, as well as defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, maintained a "bounty" program funded primarily by players in violation of NFL rules during the 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons, the NFL announced Friday.

[Tublecane]

“As far as Brett Favre is concerned, I’ve never seen such a cry-baby in all my life.”

You wouldn’t say that if you saw his bloated, purple ankle after the ‘09 championship game. Or maybe you would, but you’d be a liar.

[Tublecane]

“With regard to ‘hurting people’... It’s football. What is a very physical game by design”

I wouldn’t have thought I’d need to explain this, but there’s a difference between a design allowing for the possibility of injury and a game being designed to injure people. Someone being carted off the field after your legal hit and you hitting someone legally so as to intentionally get them carted off the field is not the same thing. If you don’t understand that, there’s really no point trying to convince you.

[Tublecane]

“I’m just wondering why the conversation is only about St. Brett? I don’t hear a lot of hoopla from other players or teams. If he can’t take the hits, he shouldn’t be in the game.”

Whatever fantasies Favre fanatics harbor, you are rushing to hurl yourself overboard on the other side of the ship. Of all people to call crybaby and imply they can’t take the heat, Favre is last on the list. He’s the Cal Ripken of football. Or of quarterbacks, at least, since it’s not fair to compare his starting streak to less coddled positions.

Oh, and I actually heard a tweet, or whatever, from Favre, or someone who sounded enough like Favrte, in which he said it’s not that big a deal, though he did think there should’ve been more flags. So he’s not whining, for one.

[murron]

Uh, yes, a previous poster posted the pictures, and I saw them sometime after that game. Do you thing Brett Favre was the only player to receive bruises after a game? This is football, not wussball. The media was so pro-Favre that year that it was obvious they were very disappointed that they lost the championship game. That’s why the overtime rule was changed because the Saints had the nerve to win the coin toss and drive down the field to kick a FG. If the situation had been reversed, there would not have been a rule change.

Brett Favre’s bruises were par for the course of playing a very rough and violent game. The fact that the media chose to only show his bruises makes my point about their pulling for Favre.

I suppose you think that all these new rules that have been made to change the game into flag football are good.

And, yes, I can say it and I will say it. If you don’t like it, that’s your perogative, but it’s the truth, it’s factual, matter of fact, it’s satisfactual.

[Borges]

There’s more and more evidence that subsequent brain damage comes not from one or two catastrophic hits but the constant moderately light pops that are an inherent part of the NFL and in an age where players are so big and fast that’s bad news. Whether they like it or not, football is becoming like boxing...something middle class parents will not encourage their kids to take part in and people will only do because they have to.

[discostu]

That’s definitely how it’s looking. And the NFL did themselves no favor in the 90s when they cobbled together their “study” that said there were no long term negative effects, like somehow the brain was different from all our other organs and truly 100% recovered from all damage. Now they’re getting sued, and they’re gonna lose, and smart parents are starting to keep their kids away from the game. Unless they find a way to change the basic physics of the game, or finally get that international interest so they can draw personnel from poor countries, it’s got 15 or 20 years to live. They’re trying to tweak the rules, but of course every change causes the “put dresses on em” crowd to self flagellate.