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$1,000 to a guy making $1,000,000 a year is the equivalent of $50 to a guy making $50,000 per year.
$10,000 to a guy making a million is the equivalent of $500 to a guy making $50,000 per year.
Let's say a guy here on this board is (naturally) in a FF league) and let's say he makes $50,000. Let's say the pot for winning that league is $500 and let's say some consolation prize like third place or something is $50.
Let's say you're that guy. Now I ask you, would you CHEAT, COLLUDE, underhandedly conspire to win your league or that third place prize for $500 or $50 (or less if you make less, or maybe more if you make more)?
My guess is you would say a "HELL NO". So if that's true, you wouldn't but an NFL football player would?
Why again?
People collude in $50 leagues. People collude in free leagues. There are plenty of reported instances of wealthy athletes not wanting to pay paltry sums like the cost of a meal.Though really the dollar worth of the bounty is a minor issue. It completely neglects a much more major player motivation - pleasing the coach. The coach is the one who decides who gets playing time, who gets to keep their job, who gets cut, and how much a player is worth in his contract. There is great truth to the statement that athletes are conditioned to please their coach, especially in football, and an NFL player's financial livelihood is very tied to doing so.
If a coach comes out and says I want you to go rupture this guy's ACL, even without an on-the-spot offer of a bounty payment, there is plenty of financial incentive for a player to do what his coach asks. Especially amongst those who find themselves in open competition for their job.
I thought about deleting my comment after reading Doug's response, thinking maybe he had a point and I did not want to step on the thread.But then I see the resposnse and I re-read MOP's post and so yes I am thinking about the culture conflict (or civil war) that may or may not be brewing.
The way I see this is a 90 year old league itself based on a sport that had been brought from the brink of extinction when people were *dying*, literally, around the turn of the century.
And then I see the point further above about the NFL seeking to take the monetary incentive out of injuring players totally out of the game.
I think Doug was speaking about not turning this into one of the other now nearly exhausted threads about the Saints' awareness of what was going on and the defensibility of it. I get that.
However the issues merge.
Examples:
- The Giants knocked out 5 QB's in 7 games in 2010, they went 5-2 in that stretch. The point here is not that 'everyone does it', the point is that knocking out QB's wins games.
- The only game-changing injury that I recall in the Saints 9ers playoff game was Patrick Willis knocking out Pierre Thomas, a LEGAL play which caused Thomas to leave the game, which cost the Saints 3 points, which cost the Saints a fumble and more points later when Sproles was taken out on kick returns and Roby came in and fumbled, etc. The point being not that 'everyone does it' but that knocking a player out of a game on purpose or not is still LEGAL in some circumstances and that doing so to the right player can win a game.
The NFL still pays teams' players - all of them, not just one - to win playoff games.
- So, Jay Cutler is knocked out of the NFCC game in 2010, and they went on to win the SB the year after the Saints' SB win. That did not guarantee a win for the Pack - but for anyone who saw Collins and Hanie afterwards know it pretty much sealed the deal. How did Cutler get hurt? Did he really wimp out in the biggest game of his life (is there a better term - he was called some bad things) or did Packers LB Walden hit him in the knee on a running play two plays before?
1:23-1:26 - Cutler is (possibly) popped in the knee/leg by Erik Walden, Packer OLB on a *running* play. One play later Cutler is out the game. Walden personally made at least $80,000 off that play considering the NFL BONUSES for winning that game, making the SB and then winning the SB.
My point here is NOT "everybody does it." My point here is that whether it was intentional or not, Packers-Bears NFCC game or otherwise the NFL pays every team for appearing and then again for winning a playoff game.
>>>> "(NFL) players earn $21,000 for winning a wild-card game and $19,000 for losing one. That rises to $21,000 for the divisional round and $38,000 for the conference championship game. Players on a Super Bowl winner receive $83,000 each; the losers get $42,000 each."<<<
http://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0611/Playoff-Perks-For-Pro-
And the chances of winning go way, way, way up when the QB is taken out in this game, and in the modern version it is far more than ever because the QB is far more important than ever. In fact you could argue the new concussion rules actually INCREASE the incentive to hit the QB in the head because now it is far easier to get a player knocked out. The days of Y. A. Tittle playing with a cracked sternum and a concussion are over.
http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/slides/photos/000/727/442/ya-tittle_display_image.jpg?1297821396
So while the NFL seems to be sending a message that the cultural rules of the NFL - what goes on inside the locker room - have to change, because coaches and players had better not be caught discussing injury lists or (allegedly) conspiring to take advantage of those injuries by exacerbating them, the reality is that the NFL pays players for doing just that. And yes then there is the incentive for just being the champion.
Not a defense of the Saints here, just brutal cold reailty.