New Orleans Saints/Washington Redskins: Bounty Hunters

[MTK]

Originally Posted by mooby

Without reading what Rogers said (because I'm at work and don't have access to PFT lol) it sounds like he's just saying what he's saying in the hopes they'll punish us, which I think is doubtful. If anything though I'd imagine it will be a while before we see GW in the NFL again, if ever.

Not really.

Rogers said it started as a pool of money consisting of fines imposed by Williams for players being late to meetings or missing meetings, along with money kicked in by players. Payments would be made for big plays, like interceptions.

At some point, the program expanded.

“It went on to guys just suggesting stuff in a room,” Rogers said. “If you knock this person out, let’s say a receiver, he comes across the middle. Safety knocks him out, a legal hit, you get this amount of money.”

Rogers insisted that the word “bounty” overstates the situation, and he claims that the payment system is a product of “competition in the [meeting] room,” and that “once the ball is snapped you’re not thinking about it.”

Though Rogers stopped short of saying that money was offered to 49ers players for efforts during the NFC title game, he said that players recognized that, when facing Giants quarterback Eli Manning, “We need to take him out.”

Rogers also doesn’t believe that the current effort to punish the Saints will change the realities of pro football. “Will guys stop doing it in their [meeting] rooms? I doubt it.”

He also sounded off on Commissioner Roger Goodell’s habit of fining players for making big hits, arguing that “it’d probably be different” if Goodell had played pro football and understood how the game really works.

I’ve been following the NFL long enough to understand how it investigative process really works. When faced with a rabbit hole that may go far deeper than anyone at the league office wants to know or acknowledge it goes, the NFL often is inclined to cover the opening with dirt and move on.