Is the Saints bounty scandal, a real scandal?

The big news in the NFL for the past couple of days has been about the Saint's bounty scandal. In case you haven't heard, the NFL on Friday, March 2, said that 22 to 27 defensive players ran a bounty program from 2009-2011with the intent to injure players on other teams. The NFL investigation found the payments of the "program" were administered by then defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. Saints head coach Sean Payton had knowledge of the program, but did not stop it.

The NFL has rules against "bounties" and current NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has shown that he takes players safety very seriously. I expect him to act quickly and hand out some pretty stiff punishments. I wouldn't be surprised to see multiple game suspensions and heavy fines for both the players and the coaches.  The Saints will also lose a draft pick or picks as well.

I can understand some of the outrage about the bounty program. Especially the parts about taking out other players and for the big hits. With that said this has been going on in the NFL for decades. Most teams have performance based kittys or bounties. You can win a little extra money for interceptions, numer of tackles, etc. I'm sue every team in the NFL does that. That's no big deal. It's the taking out of other players and the pay out for big hits that's the big deal. But you know what. That has also been going on in the NFL for decades. That aspect of the bounty never leaves the confines of the locker room, but it does go on. I'm sure Dick Butkis and Deacon Jones had several of these bounties for taking out players. But this is a different and time and era.

I tend be cynical when it comes to things like this, but I understand and will most likely agree with what ever punishment the NFL decides on. I believe its ok to have the performance "kitty", but not taking out other players. Especially in light of what we know about concussions, and the short life spans of pro football players.