Like most grey areas, it depends on how you want to look at it. A recent AP report from Palm Springs, Fla., where some of the movers and shakers of the NFL were gathered to chit-chat, has Schwartz making some very interesting statements.
"Schwartz said past awards he's given out while working for the Tennessee Titans and the Lions -- baseball bats or a boxing glove for big hits -- had league approval, because they didn't have any monetary significance".
While it's easy to skim right over that statement with tacit acceptance, stop and consider it. Sure, depending on the quality of bats or boxing gloves, they might range anywhere from maybe 10 bucks to a few hundred, but they're certainly not free. Money is involved somewhere. Where do you want to draw the line?
Schwartz went on to say, "It was part of the game ball program. It wasn't part of anything else".
Careful there, Jimbo, because you're treading on thin ice. Under oath, a shrewd attorney might well grill him as to the difference between 10 bucks worth of merchandise, or a couple thousand in cash, when the objective, and the means to achieve it, are the same. I highly doubt whether a court of law would make much of a distinction between a solid gold bullet, or one made of lead, if one were to shoot somebody.
Schwartz went on. "A recognition system has been in effect for football since pee wee ball. We give out game balls..... A lot of colleges give out stickers on helmets; high schools give out stickers on helmets. There's a big difference between things like that and things like bounties".
Maybe, and maybe not. Schwartz's "testimony" seems ambiguous at best. I dare say in a court of law, Schwartz would likely get blown up on the witness stand for such remarks. The past practice and precedents set not only by him, but others who have engaged in similar activities, while freely admitting rewards have been given out since "pee wee ball" for big hits on an opponent, would certainly seem to suggest it's inherent in the very nature of the sport. And let's not kid ourselves. The NFL didn't become the gorilla in the room of American professional sports due to the footwork of offensive linemen. It's about hard-hitting action.
On that note, the NFL would seem to have some culpability in this matter, as well. They have their own TV station now. And what have they shown on occasion? A "biggest hits" program. A virtual Top Ten count down of a player getting absolutely destroyed on the field of play by an opponent hitting him. And guess what? The NFL gets a helluva lot more than a baseball bat, a boxing glove, a game ball, or a couple thousand bucks off this sort of stuff. Yet the Saints are being hammered for doing the same thing. Do you sense hypocrisy here?
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is in a tough spot. On the one hand, if he clamps down too much on violence in a historically violent sport, some fans will become disenchanted and stay away. (It would be like the NHL banning fighting. It might be politically correct, but good luck with how the fans would react). On the other, everything's about image these days, so he tries to placate the bleeding-hearts that think the sky is falling every time one of the players gets "jacked up" -- which was also a segment on an NFL condoned TV program, by the way. Bet we won't see that again any time soon. If Goodell navigates his way out of this mess, maybe he should get a sticker on his gold cuff links -- or something.
Conclusion? This whole thing has been way overblown. Given the current atmosphere of sports-related sex scandals, cheating here, illegal payments there, etc -- the Saints are merely the fall guys in a current hyper-sensitive media environment. Wrong place at the wrong time.
It's the NFL. Every time a guy has the ball, 11 other guys are trying to inflict great bodily harm. It's just the way it is. If you don't like it, then don't watch. Millions of others seem to enjoy it for their own reasons.
But spare me all the outrage over a thousand bucks here and there about some bounty system.
WAY overblown.
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