Bounty-Gate

So I suppose it's time I weigh in on the Bounty scandal that is now front and center in the NFL. I’ve heard from and/or read all the experts on this. I’ve had more than my fill of the muscle-headed former NFL players who insist that this paying to mame has been going on forever and is simply an acceptable part of the violent culture that is professional football. So what DO I think about all this?

First, I think that the NFL players who are defending the bounty culture are proving themselves to be even less intelligent than their most critical fans have always assumed football players to be. By insisting that all those outside the game are making too big of a deal out of vicious, bounty-inspired hits and concussions, professional football players are essentially confirming that they truly are the short-sighted, selfish morons that so many non-football players have always assumed them to be. The tough guys crying “enough already!” to the intelligent, concerned dialogue regarding concussions and bounties are far too willing to sacrifice themselves, their brothers in the game, and even their own family’s futures at the altar of a few highlights on Sports Center. Grow up, boys!

Shouldn’t these “professional” athletes be thinking at least a little about what their lives and their family’s lives might be like after they retire? Shouldn’t they do everything in their power not to be brain dead and wheelchair bound by the time they are forty- five? And why isn’t anybody interviewing Brett Farve’s wife or Peyton Manning’s kids to find out how they feel about their husbands and fathers being the subjects of a bounty?

Every time I see Troy Polumalu and James Harrison intentionally use their own heads like battering rams, I realize just how idiotic these gazillionaires are. With all the data and information we now have about concussions and their long-term effects, you simply have to be a moron to play so recklessly and to intentionally injure your fellow competitors that way.

Yes, football is and always will be a violent and dangerous game, particularly when it is played at the highest level. But there is no intelligent argument against controlling and limiting the violence in two very minimal and rational ways: 1) rule changes that protect players’ heads and seriously punish head shots, and 2) doing away with the bounty culture and the outmoded macho mentality that has produced it. I take my hat off to Commissioner Goodell for standing up to this idiocy wherever it rears its ugly, selfish, and short-sighted head.