A couple of months after the NFL season, a story broke that the New Orleans Saints defensive coaching staff had been running a bounty system. A bounty system, according to the NFL, is a system in which a defensive player will get rewarded cash for injuring an opposing team’s offensive player. After hearing these allegations, the NFL punished Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis, Head Coach Sean Payton, and Greg Williams. Payton was suspended for the whole NFL season while Williams (recently hired as Head Coach for the St. Louis Rams) was suspended indefinitely.
Probably the most incriminating piece of evidence was the audio recording that surfaced in early April in which Greg Williams revealed that he targeted 49er players for specific injury, like Kyle Williams’ head (Williams suffered a concussion weeks earlier), and Vernon Davis’ sprained ankle.
Let it be known that paying players for injuring an opposing player is wrong. Injuries are a part of football, but they should be accidents, not premeditated assaults. The New Orleans Saints coaching staff should be held completely responsible for this error in judgment, but it should also be noted that they acted as part of a bigger culture of violence in the NFL.
All fans of the game at one time or another have gotten out of their seats after a big hit that left a player laying on the ground in agony. I fell victim to the big hit celebration, when 49er’s Dashon Goldson hit Pierre Thomas in the Divisional Playoffs, forcing a fumble and concussion simultaneously.
When players hit each other, especially NFL super athletes, injuries happen. They are a part of a billion dollar corporation that prides itself on physicality. These players are like any other American working to support themselves and their families. They need money like anybody else and the fact that a coach would call for reinjures to take a player out of work is sickening.
As disturbing as the Saints “war like” culture is, it is used in professional and amateur locker rooms across the country in a variety of sports. The competitive nature of sports can strip some coaches and players of their morality. Most athletes will tell you that they have had at least one coach whose competitiveness got the best of them. Coaches will be quick to describe their players as “warriors” or “gladiators” alluding to the battle like approach these specific players have on the playing field.
Violence has become a bizarre subculture of sports and especially the NFL.
As a response, in recent years the NFL has taken a headstrong approach against concussions to protect both the leagues’ and players’ financial longevity. New rules have been put in place to protect players’ heads. When a player gets hit in the head, it is now protocol for a player to be checked by a doctor certified in understanding the signs of concussions.
It is this movement towards safety that makes the Saint’s violations more devastating.
But this is where the NFL’s protection stops. The NFL can’t change the way they play the game or lower the quality of athletes who come into the NFL. They must just keep their head down and slap the wrists of players that perform illegal hits. The product for the NFL is too solid to change.
Steeler’s linebacker James Harrison has been fined for hits to the head more than any player in the NFL. His hits on offensive players have left players with concussions for weeks, yet the NFL routinely chose to fine Harrison, not his Defensive Coordinator or Head Coach. If safety were the priority for NFL coaches, Mike Tomlin (Steelers Head Coach) would have benched Harrison a long time ago. By fining Sean Payton and Greg Williams, Roger Goodell is indicating that the NFL is changing and wants to protect its players.
But will the NFL really ever feel the need to do more? Chances are this whole “Bountygate” situation will blow over because the NFL is thriving right now as the most popular sport in America and fixing an unbroken car is unreasonable. Yes, Williams and Payton might never receive the respect they once had or coach again for that matter, but the culture of physicality and violence will continue to stick in the NFL.
