If you have ever played football competitively the idea of trying to take another player out in a game may not surprise you. I know when I was in high school it wasn’t necessarily a goal to injure a player but if it happened there was an excited buzz throughout the team. Big hits were glorified not only in the locker room but on SportsCenter too. Highlights of big hits were played over and over on top plays.
The Saints are just feeding to the type of behavior that was instilled at an early age. This bounty scandal has shocked a lot of people. I think this is largely due to the involvement of management and payouts for taking out players of the opposition. People are saying that Sean Payton and GM Mickey Loomis deserve to be fired, whether its for direct involvement or for ignoring the situation. I don’t know if I agree with that but they will be reprimanded.
Look, football is a rough sport. Offensive players are payed to score. Defensive players are payed to stop them from scoring. If fans knew all of the nuances that happen in the locker room and behind the scenes they would probably think a lot less of these athletes. Believe it or not, players act differently than they do in a press conference. I do think that it was wrong to pay defensive players to go out there with the intention of taking out the opposing QB like they did Brett Favre and Kurt Warner. That being said players are taught at an early age to go out there and hit a player so hard they don’t get up. Why do you think players like James Harrison keep getting fined for big hits? He’s been doing it for 15 plus years and you can’t just change instinct like that overnight. This type of play will take a long time to change and it starts in high schools and colleges.
The Saints will get punished for this scandal much like the Patriots and spy-gate. Stuff like this happens a lot more than fans probably realize, the Saints just happened to get caught.
So that's sports: from the fan's perspective.
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