I have to agree with you. This kind of mentality is slowly being phased out of football, and will not stop until the NFL is a flag football league.
Sean Payton's lawyer is floating the 'Williams was a rogue coach that was on his way to getting fired' line.
People were overreact to this, but im sure stuff like this is said in every locker room. Its not that big of a deal The only problem is the fact that he was paying players to injure, which goes against the cap rules.
None of that seemed too bad except for the targeting the ACL. I think every coach would say stuff like make sure they remember you hits, make them think twice coming over the middle, finish your hits, etc etc. The ACL thing is bad, but I wouldn't be surprised if to hear other coaches doing the same thing. On a side note, can a hockey fan confirm/deny this, I heard in the NHL coaches/teams will be as vague as possible with an injury because they know that player will be focused on, especially on that body part? So like if a play has bad left knee, the team will say "lower body" injury and leave it as vague as possible?
Yeah, if the player is going to be playing through the injury. It's either disclosed as upper or lower body injury.
I'm not saying that Williams' actions were OK, but the patronizing "won't someone think of the children!" reaction that they spawned is total bullshit. This kind of attitude is standard all across the league. Hell, two players on the Giants admitted to the NY Times that they were targeting Kyle Williams' head in the NFC Championship game, and nobody is calling for Tom Coughlin to be banned for life. From Pop Warner on up, players are taught to go after opponents in ways that will put doubt in their minds and throw them off of their games. Usually coaches aren't as explicit as Williams was, but the message is always clear. The Saints bounty scandal is really a problem with the culture of football, and making an example of one team won't do dick to solve it.
You think that Gregg Williams being dumb enough to let his bounty system be documented is going to stop coaches like Jim Schwartz and Rex Ryan from telling their players to go out and deliver kill shots? If so, you're way more optimistic than I am. Cultures don't change overnight.
I don't think it'll necessarily change the culture and violent nature of these players, but I do think that coaches will no longer be so brazen about it in their speeches -- at least, not while they're being recorded.
there was also a time when you could lock hundreds of people in a building for 18 hour days with minimal ventilation and no fire escape to work. times change. the NFL is a billion dollar business that has an obligation to as safe a work environment as possible or they are going to be sued. you can't eliminate injuries that happen as a repercussion of simply performing the acts of running and tackling but the league has an obligation to minimize the amount of permanent damage that happens to its players, and that starts with eliminating excessive acts that don't contribute to the sport. in case you haven't noticed the NFL is likely going to be sued at some point in the future for all the brain injuries that former players have suffered. not doing everything you can to keep your employees healthy for the NFL is no different then making sure factories have fire escapes.
1) Workers never got pumped up and voluntarily locked themselves in death traps for 18 hours a day. Football players do completely buy into the violence of the game, and from an early age. 2) How do you expect the NFL to eliminate this? Are they going to put hall monitors in every lockerroom to suspend any coach who tells a defender to hit his guy in the mouth?
According to Warren Sapp, Mike Irvin, and numerous other NFL players, this stuff does NOT go on in every lockerroom.
it doesn't matter what the employees buy into, it doesn't supersede the employers obligations. Korey Stringer bought into the same equivalent, practicing and pushing through the rigors of heat but the team still settled the lawsuit with his widow because they had an obligation to protect him even if he was willing to do the work. when I was a waiter I never cared about taking breaks because to do so meant we would have had to have staffed an extra server so we could all cycle through our breaks and have enough people on the floor. I preferred to skip the break, have one less server, and make more money. but if the restaurant got busted for not providing breaks the fact that I didn't want one would be irrelevant -- the restaurant was still obligated to provide it.
big fucking deal as far as i am concerned... i know everyone has their panties in a bunch about it but i really couldnt care less that he told them to go after knees that were hurt or heads that were suspect.... if you ever played football you realize that intimidation is a huge part of the game and smashing someone is one of the best ways to do it. this is the type of shit that happens when you get some guy who really knows nothing about football in a locker room. they dont get it and get all omg about it. this game will continue to change until its just a flag football game with fancy new uniforms every year. and most of the current group that watch it will be more than happy. and goody will lead the way there.
I'm all for the way he tried to fire up his team, but once the money was being thrown down on the table to try and injure someone is where it crossed the line in my books.
