Saints targeted Favre with Vikings: report

The New York Post ^ | March 7, 2012 | BRIAN COSTELLO

[MinorityRepublican]

Brett Favre is helped off the field after the Saints got to him in the 2010 NFC title game.

An on-field microphone might have captured evidence of the Saints

[MinorityRepublican]

New Orleans Saints face NFL punishment in 'bounty-gate'

[Belteshazzar]

This is a perfect example of affirmative action. The Saints should be allowed to play by a different set of rules because New Orleans had only recently (this would be from the perspective of 2009) experienced Hurricane Katrina. The city needed to win the NFC Championship and the subsequent Super Bowl to give it a sense of self-worth after so great a catastrophe. So, it is OK that they broke the rules. The regular rules should only have applied to the Vikings, whose home state and city suffered no such catastrophe.

[Vendome]

I think they should be criminally and civilly held accountable.

A good hit is a good hit and sportsmanlike.

Purposely engaging in an assault with the intent injure or maim is a crime.

[KoRn]

Since when was the QB NOT the ‘target’?

If I were a defensive coach, knocking Favre out of the game would have been a huge plus, if possible.

[skeeter]

As an old Raiders fan (back when I cared about the NFL) I'm glad to hear that all this time other teams around the league are just as, or more, 'dirty' than Oakland.

I was especially interested to hear that Bill Walsh may have paid bounties as well.

[Sybeck1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPZCVCZNc50

Vikings Saint bounty game

[Joe 6-pack]

"As an old Raiders fan (back when I cared about the NFL) I'm glad to hear that all this time other teams around the league are just as, or more, 'dirty' than Oakland."

Jack Tatum was in a class by himself.

[jacob k]

I’m glad I’m not the only one up in arms about this bounty nonsense.

I figured the point of football was to knock out your opponents. Perhaps the football I played in my younger days was different?

[WildWeasel]

I don’t know what football you played if at all, but the point is to block, tackle, run and score more points than the other team, not intentionally hurt other players.

Yes, players get hurt, but it’s not the goal of the game to knock each other out.

Intentionally hurting another player with an incentive to do so from the coaching staff should be faced with severe penalty from the NFL as it is not what football is about.

[MinorityRepublican]

This isn’t Gladiators back in Ancient Rome.

[justlurking]

Intentionally hurting another player with an incentive to do so from the coaching staff should be faced with severe penalty from the NFL as it is not what football is about.

Forget about penalties from the NFL. Any player that does this should be arrested by the police and charged with assault.

In the 70's, there was a string of arrests for assault in the NHL:

On-ice incidents resulting in charges

The in-game violence hasn't been completely eliminated, but people no longer joke about going to a fight and seeing a hockey game break out.

[ScubieNuc]

The bounty thing should be punished, no question. The thing that has always bothered me, was anyone watching that game could tell that the refs were letting the Saints get away with alot more then the Vikings. Granted, no ref is perfect, but in light of the bounty thing, it makes me wonder what kind of incentive did the refs have for being so Saint oriented? It’s not a secret that New Orleans is one of the most corrupt cities in the nation, so was outside money/threats involved with the refs?

[AnotherUnixGeek]

I was especially interested to hear that Bill Walsh may have paid bounties as well.

Except he didn't - the accusation was put forth by Dexter Manley. Both former 49ers players and coaches stated that the play Manley was referring to was a crack-back block by Russ Francis on a running play that the team had practiced all week. Francis was specifically assigned to nail Manley on that play and he did it with a clean, legal block that knocked Dexter off his feet. The only payment Francis got for that block was his salary and the cheers of team-mates, which apparently resulted in a decades-long case of sour-grapes by Manley.

As the 49ers noted, if Walsh had paid players for hard hits, Ronnie Lott would currently have his own island in the Caribbean. Manley was a buffoon during his playing days and now he's lying about a dead Hall of Fame coach.

[denydenydeny]

I always disliked Sean Payton but couldn’t put my finger on it. He’s a little punk.

[2001convSVT]

"This isn’t Gladiators back in Ancient Rome."

Yes it is. Bread and Circus for everyone! Thank you big government.

The players are just lucky that swords, spears, axes, knives and blunt weapons, such as clubs and maces weapons aren't legally this time around.

[skeeter]

Ronnie Lott attends my church, so I'd hate to think of him getting payola for taking other players out.

But given what we know about the 49ers under Walsh in hindsight; the salary cap issues, DeBartolo's grasp of ethics and comments made by Walsh's contemporaries like Bill Parcells there seems to be alot of smoke there.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Ronnie Lott attends my church, so I'd hate to think of him getting payola for taking other players out.

Well, since no one has ever claimed that he did I don't think this warrants much concern.

But given what we know about the 49ers under Walsh in hindsight; the salary cap issues

The salary cap had nothing to do with Walsh - he retired from his NFL career before the salary cap was even implemented.

DeBartolo's grasp of ethics and comments made by Walsh's contemporaries like Bill Parcells there seems to be alot of smoke there.

Most of the fire behind that smoke was the 49ers' success, which stirred up quite a bit of envy and resentment around the league.

DeBartolo was dumb enough to make in illegal payment to a corrupt Louisiana governor in a non-NFL venture and ended up losing his team because of it. The 49ers reported themselves to the NFL for improperly structuring Brent Jones' contract in 1997 to make room for first-round bust Jim Druckenmiller under the salary cap. That's pretty much it.