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No, I wasn't saying they were okay. I know it sounded that way, because I was frustrated. I do not believe they are okay. Not if the players went out there with intent to hurt someone. But if the bounties were just to give an incentive to play harder, that's different. The NFL is spinning it one way, the players are spinning it another. Who do we believe? The NFL has not provided one shred of evidence, despite multiple requests by the NFLPA. Also, you say Vilma put up $10,000. Says who? The NFL? Vilma says he did no such thing:
"I never paid, or intended to pay, $10,000, or any amount of money, to any player for knocking Kurt Warner, Brett Favre or any other player out of the 2009 Divisional playoff game, 2010 NFC Championship Game or any other game.
I never set out to intentionally hurt any player and never enticed any teammate to intentionally hurt another player. I also never put any money into a bounty pool or helped to create a bounty pool intended to pay out money for injuring other players. I have always conducted myself in a professional and proud manner."
So who are we believing? I apologize if it sounded like I was saying a bounty system such as the NFL suggests we had was okay. It would not be. What I meant to imply when saying it wasn't a big deal is that everyone is making this into a HUGE scandal of which we have absolutely no proof. Where is the evidence that Vilma put out $10,000 with the intent to hurt someone? He says he didn't. Where is the evidence that this caused the Saints to hit harder? There isn't any, because players hit hard ANYWAY. Like I said about the 49ers game. That was a dirty hit. It wasn't inspired by a bounty, supposedly, but it happened. How are the bounties the cause of hard hits? That would mean the salaries of every defensive player is a bounty! I am frustrated because everyone is pointing to every questionable play by a Saint in 2009-2011 and saying, "Look, that was the result of a bounty! Shame on them!" Except nobody points to the same type of hits by other teams and says the same. "Oh, look, Suh slammed a guy's head into the ground three times and then stomped on him. But that's okay, because it wasn't part of a bounty system. We'll only suspend him two games." Do you see what I mean? People are retroactively pinning EVERYTHING on the bounties. Just like you suddenly said the Saints only won because of the bounties. How can you possibly prove that? It's incredibly frustrating. The Saints played well, but suddenly it's all about the bounties. That's what I meant. Not that they're an okay thing, but that they ARE NOT the cause of all these things that happened. Or at least that there is no evidence. My team says one thing, Roger Goodell says another. Who am I supposed to believe with no released evidence from Goodell? If he has so much of it, why is he afraid to show it to the NFLPA?
You can understand why I'm upset. One day our team is proud of a Super Bowl win. We played amazingly. Nothing about a bounty in any way, shape or form helped us beat the Colts that day. Yet now we're being blasted by the country because the only way we could have won that Super Bowl was by cheating. That hurts! Especially when no one has any proof that particular plays were caused by bounties. Take Kurt Warner's comment. So you say it's still wrong because they shouldn't have done it. Granted. But Kurt says they did nothing illegal. Football is a violent sport, people are going to get hurt. So if they had gone after Kurt the same way, legally, without a bounty system in place, then I guess that would be okay? See...now it's all part of the bounties. Had there been no bounty system, most of those plays would have been legal. Yet now that there was a bounty system, they are not. That's almost as incredible as saying, "It's legal to turn right on red, but not if someone paid you money to do it. Now you must be arrested." If a play is legal, it is legal. Regardless of why it was played. Frustrated, yes. 
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"It's not about the legacy you leave, it's about the life you live." ~Mara Jade Skywalker
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