Note: Contains reference to a racist sports team name.
So, given my minor rant about a player discussing medical history as a reason to bash more, you can only imagine how disheartening I find the current news about injury bounties. (So far it's Gregg William's defenses under the Saints and the Redskins. Some players are saying they know of other programs, we shall see how this develops.)
I understand the purpose of incentives. I have heard coaches talk about how fascinating it is that offering dollars* to players with million dollar contracts has an intriguing result, particularly if that reward is presented in front of the rest of the team after a fame of say forced fumbles or blocked kicks. But, again, there is a huge difference between offering rewards for tackles or any actual legitimate defensive maneuver and rewarding injury. As someone who injured myself standing by a water fountain, I agree that injuries can happen in the most benign of circumstances, but that does not excuse rewarding players for injuries or inciting players to injure others. There is an absolute world of difference between making plays to win games and making plays to harm others, and if the players and coaches cannot see that, then I'm not sure they deserve to participate.
The NFL does already prohibit such things, so this isn't really news that it's wrong, just apparently news to some teams that violating these rules is a bad idea.
*Some of the articles indicate that even this is against the current rules. These were former coaches so I assume this behavior was accepted at the time of their coaching.
Rants About New (and old) Things
