Bountygate Is An Overrated Scandal

Published: 5^th Mar 12 5:11 pm

by danflaherty
danflaherty

RANT It!

Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

What’s the fan of an “honest” team to think in the NFL? Over the last five years we’ve seen “Spygate” with the New England Patriots unearthed in 2007, and now it’s “Bountygate” in New Orleans. What’s the message that’s going out to teams like the Kansas City Chiefs, who haven’t been implicated in anything? Given that the Patriots have been the NFL’s signature franchise in recent years, while the Saints have been its rising stars, is it unreasonable to think teams like the Chiefs–who haven’t won a playoff game since 1993–have to get a little comfortable operating outside the law?

As a well-known college football announer says, “Not so fast my friend.”

I might be in a minority of one on both of these topics, but I found both Spygate and Bountygate to be overblown. To be sure, the penalties assessed agaisnt teh Patriots, and the ones that will presuambly be leveled against the Saints–fines, loss of draft picks–are fair. There are rules against filming signals and having bounty tags placed on opposing players, and a sports league, like any other organization has to uphold the rule of law or it invites chaos. But at bottom, ask yourself what we’ve really discovered in light of both of these “scandals”. We’ve learned that NFL coaches try and figure out what signals the other team is calling and NFL players try and hit each other really, really hard.

Call me less than overwhelmed.

There are penalties in place if a player delivers a cheap shot on a tackle, regardless of whether there’s a bounty or not. I watched the 2009 NFC Championship Game where the Saints came after the “tagged” Brett Favre with a vengeance, and I most definitely noted how hard they hit him. But I didn’t find anything dirty about it. And for the record, this comes from a Favre fan who wanted to see the Vikings win that game.

The Saints players having bounties and the Patriot coaches filming signals fall in the category of an 18-year-old kid getting caught drinking. Sure, you have to level the appropriate sanction, but let’s not pretend the world is ending because of it.