I think there is a good amount of blame that should go to the NFL officating crew and the league itself. Too often were flags not thrown on plays that seemed to risk injury whether by design or not, and too seldom did the league level a punishment enough to deter such hits.
Sounds like Bud agrees.
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Longtime Vikings coach Bud Grant, still one of the sharpest judges of the NFL game, can't understand why league administration didn't look to punish the officiating crew that worked the 2010 NFC Championship Game between the Vikings and Saints, whose responsibility it is to control the physical nature of the game.
Instead, the focus has remained on the bounty situation that has come out, with Saints players getting paid for hurting quarterback Brett Favre and other players.
"One thing that helped in the bounty case is the officials are responsible for calling penalties," Grant said. "Over the years, you might have noted that they don't call many penalties in playoff games or Super Bowl games -- they reduce the penalties."
The crew of referee Peter Morelli, umpire Roy Ellison, head linesman Mark Hittner, line judge Byron Boston, side judge Tom Hill, field judge Dyrol Prioleau, back judge Bill Schmitz and replay official Ken Baker did a terrible job that day. Even some Saints players wondered how they got by with so many illegal hits. Like one important NFL official said, "Favre looked he came out of a car wreck after the game."
Said Grant: "The players will do whatever they can, whatever they can get away with. If [officials] had flagged New Orleans for those hits, and if you penalize them, then they cannot do it anymore. But as long as the officials let it go like it went [in the NFC Championship Game], then we were the victim, Favre was the victim, of those vicious late hits. The officials have to accept some of the blame for that."
Grant, who has campaigned for full-time officials in the NFL, said bounty situations are nothing new and existed when he played with the Eagles in 1951 and '52. "When I played, and I've talked to [Vikings consultant and former Browns player] Paul Wiggin, too, and other players that have played in the National Football League, a lot of teams have bonuses for interceptions, and sometimes it's among the players themselves.
"The defensive players will say, 'We'll each put in the pot if you get an interception,' but the team did not always provide the bonuses. But when I was with the Eagles, the team provided the bonuses. I got bonuses for sacks and fumble recoveries, I got one interception, but it was like $10. It's not like it was today, it's a lot more money today."
Grant said the Saints aren't the exception. "Most teams had that, but they don't call it bounty and they don't call it trying to put a player out of the game," he said. "Every coach teaches when the guy is on his feet, he's not down, you go in and get another hit on him to knock the ball loose. That's football. If they're going to take that out of football, they're going to lose a lot of their appeal."
Vikings coaches wouldn't talk on the record then after reviewing the film of that Saints game, because they would have been fined if they criticized officials. But I remember the comments by then-coach Brad Childress, who could not believe what the Saints got away with right in front of officials' eyes.