In the past week the sports world has seen some big news
about bountys in the NFL. For all you that aren’t farmiliar with what a bounty
is or what is happening with the new Orleans saints, I will Inform you a bounty
is when a coach or fellow player, owner or other team affiliate puts a set amount
of money on a players head or a specific play. One example from the Saints
situation was one of their linebackers was going to give 10,000 dollars to any
player who could injure Brett Farve when they were playing the minnisota Vikings.
However they didn’t just have them on the heads of other players, they also had
them on plays such as interceptions, or forced fumbles. Commissioner Roger
Goodell came out and said that the saints are going to be punished harshly for
this fiasco. This however brings up the issue of weather bountys are ethical or
not.
Really
how are they different from performance based rewards that could be built into
a contract. If a player can get an interception, or whatever the case is then doesn’t
he deserve to be rewarded? I feel that the NFL is just going completely over
the top with its distribution of punishment.
Bountys were commonplace in the NFL for years with some of the NFL
greats such as Lawrence Taylor, Ronnie Lott and Hollywood Henderson admitting
to having played with and for them. I don’t see why all the sudden they become
un acceptable.
I agree with your post here, I don't see anything wrong with a bounty. It's the exact same thing as if you get an interception, sack or fumble as announced above. They have the same thing in other sports as well! In hockey the tough guys get paid extra little bit of cash to take certain people out. For instance when Rene Bourque made a dirty elbow to a Washington Capital player, he had to answer the bell and fight Matt Hendricks.
ReplyDeleteBounties are just extra incentive to make a player work harder to achieve something. There is nothing wrong with a little extra incentive. Just like if your parents offered you extra money for every "A" on your report card.