This is the letter I wrote to Mike Silver of Yahoo Sports last week after he wrote the article lambasting the Saints about letting Joe Vitt take over as coach:
Mike,
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Why do some of you media types believe the Saints need to perform some type of "act of contrition" or be apologetic to the football world? Your tone comes off as if the Saints are alcoholics who need some type of outside "intervention" (your words) to cleanse them of their addiction. It sounds as if you want the Saints to be a more gentler and politically correct football squad.
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I suppose it would satisfy you if a new coach came in and sat everyone down and explained that we are not here to hit too hard, doggone we would not want to get anyone hurt! We should take it easy and just wrap guys up, otherwise we could injure our opponents knees. Fumbles are good, but we should not try and hit hard enough to actually force one. You can hit anyone but, let's definitely be careful not hurt any of their skill players as we would definitely not want to impair their ability to beat us. It's OK if we only go 0-16, it is only a game darn it! Sounds pretty ludicrous doesn't it.
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Mike, have you ever played football or any contact sports? Locker room hyperbole like "take his head off" or "kill the head and the body will die" are heard by every kid who plays football from midgets up through to the pros before every game. This is not meant literally, they are not intending for us to actually cut off his head Mike. It means to hit your opponent as hard and as often as is legally possible to instill an increased level of hesitation and a decreased level of awareness that will negatively affect their ability to play at their best level. Hitting your opponent anything less than 110% will land you on the bench and out of league QUICKLY! There is NO differentiation between a legal violent hit to cause a fumble or to put a player down and a legal violent hit to injure. There is no intent to end another players career, but legal violent hits are required to successfully play this game...the result will inordinately be injuries. Football was and is a violent game. If you want a kinder and gentler game watch the pro bowl. 90% of the fans to include myself will stop watching football and spend our time watching Rugby and UFC.
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Have you guys noticed that whenever you interview other professional football players like Jim Rome did yesterday with Carlos Rogers, when asked about the "bounty scandal" they all just smile and say that it is overblown and there was absolutely no indication that Saints did anything on the field which can in any way be construed as illegal or cheap. In fact, most have indicated that the same pay for performance the Saints got hit on goes on in virtually every other locker room in the NFL.
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The ironic thing is that the commissioner knows this as well. This whole thing was grandstanding...undoubtedly his legal advisors thought the timing was right with over 100 retired players in class action litigation for disability due to concussions. He chose the Saints to make an example of (they made it easy for him) to prove to the courts that the league is seriously trying to deal with this issue. The commissioner's office knew they could illicit the resulting outcry by cleverly rebranding the terms to "bounty" using the literal hyperbole commonly heard in the locker room to convince morons like you to think there was a genuine desire by good people and coaches to end other players careers. His thoughts were probably along the lines of: the collateral damage was only four people...Sean Payton's ego is big enough to survive this; only one person permanently damaged and if he keeps his mouth shut for a year, I will reinstate him.
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Pat yourself on the back Mike, you did a great job, the commissioner's office played you like a cheap fiddle.
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What makes you different from most, is you still don't realize it. You will quickly label me as one of the rabid, stupid, uneducated, win at all costs SAINTs fans, whose loyalty has clouded his ability to think clearly. Though I could, I won't take the time to disabuse you of those thoughts. I will just give you some sage advice, before you put pen to paper to criticize good people on a national stage, you might want to step back from the obvious and use that nugget upstairs to analyze the larger picture.
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Steve Pecoraro
Tampa, FL