ESPN.com/nfl poll: Was the bounty scandal blown out of proportion?
I don't see how anyone can know whether or not it was overblown until the evidence has been revealed. If it turns out that bonuses were offered for players getting carted off the field or getting hurt or whatever, it wasn't overblown. If it turns out bonuses were offered for making impact plays, like interceptions or big stops or whatever, it definitely was overblown.
Umm, no. If you were either A) not a fan of any NFL team, B) a casual fan, or C), a biased fan of a team other then the Saints...you would take what was put out by the NFL (and promptly shouted from on-high by the majority of the media) and actually believe that the Saints franchise/coaches/players were involved in an elaborate scheme intended to inflict injury on opposing players, game after game, over the past three seasons.
The actual 'evidence' 'proving' that this was the case has been both weak in substantiating these claims, and amazingly lacking in depth. I don't simply accept what the NFL is trying to spoon-feed me regarding what they believe the Saints did, especially in light of the current legal predicament the NFL is in, and will be in for some time, in regards to retired players suing the league due to the long term ill effects of playing the game we all love.
This situation was overblown exactly because the Saints have been condemned by the NFL and in the court of public opinion without having been proven guilty of anything. The Saints have lost their head coach for the season...GM for half the season...assistant head coach for six games....draft picks....fines....player suspensions. For that type of punishment, I expect rock solid proof....I expect the NFL to show their hand. I don't trust the NFL when the NFL tells me 'hey...we've got the goods!' Of course the NFL is a private corporation and doesn't have to disclose everything they 'know'....but as the fans of the game are the public, it is in the NFL's best interest to disclose what they know BEFORE they run over a franchise. This is intrinsic to the American way of life...innocent until PROVEN guilty.
My gut feeling says there was a pay-for-performance culture in-place, and that Gregg Williams used highly questionable language in the locker room in a never ending quest to keep the defense as motivated as possible. I also feel similar language is used in the majority of NFL locker rooms...and cash regularly changes hands between players in the majority of NFL locker rooms.
Finally...if the Saints had a system in place in which the stated and accepted goal included injuring opposing players in order to receive cash rewards....then the defense failed miserably over the past three years because the evidence of this was NOT seen on the field of play. If the effect of such system was not seen on the field, how and why would the system continue? If the system was pay-for-performance instead of pay-to-injure, then why would the Saints be punished to the extent they have been over very small-time salary cap infractions?
Ridiculous and overblown!