Okay, now that I’ve got your attention with that gripping headline, let’s talk about the recent issue that the New Orleans Saints have found themselves having to deal with.  Placing bounties on opposing players! 

Before we go any further with this story, let me say that I don’t believe this shows good sportsmanship.  I think that the players that have been (or will be) proven to have been involved in this practice should be dealt with individually with fines and/or suspensions.  That goes for coaches and management, too. 

I’ve always been a proponent for suspensions lasting at least as long as games lost by the injured player.  If your dirty, cheap shot puts a player out for the next two weeks, then your suspension should be at least two weeks.  That goes for any sport, not just football. 

Having said that, I need to voice my disgust with another aspect of this whole story.  For the past several days, I have been receiving text messages from those world renowned sports programs every five minutes, telling me the latest on the Bounty story.  I felt like I was hooked up directly to the local gossip artist.  You know, the one that feels a sense of exhilaration when they tell you the latest scoop first, regardless of how mindless and meaningless the information is. 

That was extremely annoying, but that’s not the part that disgusted me.  That came later, when the experts began lining up to spew their opinions, whether it was talk radio, television or newspaper.  One by one, they all marched out in front of their branch of the media and joined in, obviously all having received the same memo. 

You know which memo I’m talking about.  The one that says something along the lines of, “Make sure you state how appalled you are that something so barbaric could take place in this day and age.  And be sure to mention that the New Orleans Saints are the dirtiest team in football.  Don’t forget to use terms like ‘Heartless Mercenaries’ and ‘Pay-To-Maim’.” 

Just when I thought I had heard it all, I woke up early today and did something that I rarely do any more.  I read the local newspaper.  I know, I know, I should have known better.  So I guess you can argue that it was my own fault that I nearly lost it.  One of the top local sports writers wrote an article that included not one or two, but every single talking point from that memo.  I guess he had a deadline fast approaching and couldn’t think of anything to write.  He could have just printed the memo itself, but it wouldn’t have sounded much different than the story that he ended up with. 

In addition to the quotes from the memo, he also added that the NFL must be mortified.  Really?  The league that for years had turned their collective heads while players were being concussioned silly?  (Okay, so concussioned isn’t a word, but you get the point!)  This is the league that should be mortified?  C’mon, you can come up with a better one than that.  Oh, that’s right; you had a deadline for the story.  I guess we can let that one go. 

Here’s a good tidbit that he added to the story, just to punch it up (no pun intended – well maybe a little).  Even Ndamukong Suh is offended.  That’s right folks, the guys from the Detroit Lions that tackles people, then intentionally stomps on their limbs in an effort to snap them like kindling wood is offended about the bounty program.  I can’t say for certain, but I’m guessing the only thing about this that offends King Kong Suh is that he wasn’t offered the same deal.  He tried to hurt people for free! 

As I said at the beginning of this story, I do not condone any type of bounty program that involves being paid bonuses for injuring an opponent.  I do, however condone a contract that has financial incentives for number of sacks, tackles, interceptions, fumbles caused, etc.  That’s because these are not designed to injure the opponent, although the reality is that the player that gets sacked or tackled or fumbles the ball ends up with an injury a good amount of times.  That’s because football is a physical game that requires a high degree of violence to achieve the goals required to win the game. 

The bottom line is this.  If this ‘bounty’ program existed, and it can be proven to have existed, whether it was the New Orleans Saints or any other team, then we should step out of the way of the Legal Eagles that are pursuing justice.  But in the interim, let’s cut out all of the hypocritical mumbo jumbo from the gallery of experts about how appalled they are that something like this could possibly have existed in the NFL.  This isn’t tiddly-winks.  This is football!