I might be alone in this, but I still think SpyGate is a far more horrendous act than this "Bounty System" is. I can pretty much guarantee you that MOST teams have this kind of thing going on. Maybe not a coach paying a player, which is the real issue here, but among players you can bet that they probably make wagers on how well they do in a game, or how hard of a hit they can dish out. This is football, not pansieball, hard hits happens so why not motivate one another with a little extra cash on the line?
I will say that "cart hits", in suggesting that you want to put someone in the hospital is a bit far, but your goal as a pass rusher is to lay out as much brutality as you can, that is WHY they work out and get their muscles big and strong.. so they can play strong. There is nothing illegal about hitting a player hard, so why should this tarnish how the Saints play?
SpyGate on the other hand, you have a coach that is one of the most "respected" in the league with the cream of the crop in talent, yet they still feel the need to steal play signals to give them a tactical advantage on the field? Now THAT was deserving of more severe punishment. You don't exactly look like a genius coach when you knowingly steal signals and have an unfair advantage.
I don't support a coach giving their players incentives as their contract of millions should be incentive enough to play hard, but as I mentioned you can probably wager that these "bounty programs" exist between team mates on many teams. The Saints just happened to be the one to get caught.
This stuff has been going on for years, and most of the old timers did it too.
Ditka's Bears, the "Greatest defense ever" paid for knock out hits, according to the man himself, and he didn't see where it was a big deal. And that I believe, for as many quarterbacks the Bears put out of games in the 80's and for as many turnovers they had, I'm sure they all were getting bonuses. Joe Gibbs has admitted to doing it, and he don't care either. He used to hand out hundred dollar bills for knock out hits. Go back and watch all those great Redskins defenses too that he coached, and they were killing machines. I always wondered too, did the Cowboys pay a bonus to who ever put Jim Kelly out of the game in the Super Bowl when they ran the score up to 52 points on the Bills? And how about the Giants putting Montana out of the 1990 NFC Championship game? Who ever broke his ribs probably got a major bonus for taking out the leader of that offense.
Even more so, what gets over looked is the Baltimore Ravens admitted back in 2008 they were running the bounty system in the playoffs to take Mendenhall and Ward out of a game against the Steelers. And if the Ravens did it, you can believe the Steelers did it in return to them.
I'll also say, that the Kurt Warner knock out was a legal hit, and even funnier, Kurt Warner is not *****ing about it. He's said it was a legal hit himself! Do you see Brett Favre whining to the media that he didn't make it to the Super Bowl cause the Saints were trying to kill him? Regardless all the dumb things Favre has done, I don't see him making a big deal about it and he took that game like a man, so for that, I will not say a bad thing about it regarding the NFC Championship.
But what gets me is, no one investigated the Giants this year. You know the team that was faking injuries in games to stop the hurry up offense. While the Saints get the hammer, what about the Giants? They also admitted in interviews that they were trying to target Kyle Williams head in the NFC Championship because of all the concussions he had, made him "an easy target". So what the Saints did to quarterbacks knocking them around was bad, but the Giants was OK?
I think Spy gate was worse, but Bellichek didn't get suspended, so why should Payton? Payton don't even run that defense, let alone control anything that happens on that side of the ball.But you know, the Pats, and Giants, the Eastern biased to the NFL, can get by with everything, because they are the Pats and Giants that everyone loves as a big market team and in the Super Bowl as 2 crappy teams that had no business being there this year.
I don't like Gregg Williams as a defensive coordinator either, never have. He blitzes way too much, but I wouldn't be shocked if the Saints were one of 20 teams that does this in the league. That's what I will put at it. 20 years ago, I wouldn't argue that everyone did it, and in today's league, I still will argue that it's an active thing going on.