Elocism posted:

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was the bounty for hard hits or for hurting opposing players?

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Szerek posted:

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Yeah, its like football and stuff. Why should players try to hit each other? When I played ball I tried to do that shat for free. That was like the whole point of playing defense was to jack the other team up. If you hit them hard enough they were afraid to play.

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vn_nnanji posted:

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I was associated with Div-1 football and no, no coach I ever saw ever told anyone to knock someone else out. Real pros are about football, not cheap shots.

When you have to knock another player out you're a chickenshit who can't win the right way. Hard hits are one thing...intentional injuries?

That isn't football. That's just cheap shot BS.

Williams got what he deserved and should never be allowed to coach again. NOLA got hit hard but I am glad they did. A message needed to be sent, I'm glad the NFL took this seriously.

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Voodoo-Dahl posted:

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Think of all the litigation they'd open themselves up to if they didn't.

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Article posted:

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Spare me the outrage, the moral posturing and the sanctimonious grandstanding by anyone who claims to be offended that pro football is a tough, violent, nasty game.

Football has risen to its status as America's favorite sport because of the game's inherent physical nature.

Watch any game at any sports bar, and you hear whoop after whoop after whoop when a helmet-launching hit is replayed once, twice, three times on the television screens.

Speed, athleticism, drama, the betting line – all of that contributes to football's popularity.

But the violence – the big hits -- takes it over the top. It makes the crowd roar.

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Since Friday's announcement, the reaction among current and former players has been widespread and predictable, with many saying that players have had bounties for decades.

It is part of their game – part of their culture, really – for players to have an incentive among themselves to get a payoff for big plays and big hits.

It's one thing to get a weekly six-figure paycheck from your employer. It's quite another to take a few hundred bucks off a guy you see in your position group's meeting room every day for six months. It's not the money but the achievement.

There is a warrior code in football that puts a premium on toughness, whether it's playing with pain, going over the middle to catch a pass or delivering big hits.

It is celebrated in the history of the game, despite some horrible consequences.

The late Jack Tatum, who spent most of his pro career playing safety for the Raiders and was nicknamed "The Assassin," was involved in one of those horrible events.

In a 1978 exhibition game, Tatum collided with Patriots receiver Darryl Stingley, who was stretched out going for a pass over the middle. Stingley was paralyzed for life. Stingley died in 2007.

Two years after the hit, Tatum wrote his autobiography "They Call Me Assassin." Tatum wrote that he wanted a receiver to go back to the sideline with "train whistles blowing in his head."

To the end, Tatum never expressed regret about his playing style.

Chris Spielman, one of the most admired Lions of his era for his all-out play at linebacker, often spoke about the intent of a hard, legal hit that might put a player out of the game.

But you wanted the player to get up and play the next week, not end his career, Spielman said.

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Szerek posted:

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No, I understand it perfectly well. This is an NFL who gives wrist slaps and small suspensions for illegal hits but goes all eye-for-an-eye over a pittance paid for legal hits.

Bounty hunting in the NFL is not new, it has been around a long time. I just wonder what it is this time that is causing the NFL to apeshit. What did the Saints do to piss off the NFL?

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