Bob CollinsSports Illustrated today published a little more about the New Orleans Saints “bounty” program that paid defensive players money for injuring the opposition.
Minnesota Vikings fans, who watched cheap shot after cheap shot in the NFC Championship game in 2010 might want to look away:
Over four quarters that Sunday at the Superdome, Favre was hit repeatedly and hard. The league later fined Saints defensive linemen Bobby McCray and Anthony Hargrove a total of $25,000 for three separate improper hits, and NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira said the Saints should have been flagged for a brutal high-low mashing by McCray and defensive lineman Remi Ayodele in the third quarter. Favre suffered a badly sprained left ankle on that play and had to be helped off the field. On the New Orleans sideline, Hargrove excitedly slapped hands with teammates, saying, “Favre is out of the game! Favre is done! Favre is done!”
An on-field microphone directed toward the sideline caught an unidentified defender saying, “Pay me my money!”
The Saints, of course, won 31-28 in overtime, giving Vikings fans more impetus for their self-flagellation ritual.
As a commenter on this morning’s 5×8 pointed out, the bounty program doesn’t explain why the refs were so bad that day.
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