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Just this past week a Vikings player claimed the Minnesota Vikings ran a bounty program in 2009.
From the Star Tribune
Vikings defensive end Brian Robison strongly denied an accusation by former Vikings offensive lineman Artis Hicks that the team ran a bounty program similar to the NFL’s infamous “Bountygate” scandal that led to stiff punishment of the New Orleans Saints back in 2012.
Of course all are denying the story.
Brad Childress denies book's claim of Vikings bounty system https://t.co/Rpt9zAUFxX pic.twitter.com/kTXFbRGUdI
— Sporting News NFL (@sn_nfl) October 27, 2016
#Vikings have issued statement on Artis Hicks claim they had bounty program in latter part of last decade: "There is no truth to the story."
— Chris Tomasson (@christomasson) October 27, 2016
The Dictator Commissioner Roger Goodell remained silent when the news broke of the accusation, and remains silent today as more bounty talk emerges.
NFL has no comment on Vikings bounty allegations https://t.co/wFpGwIQJQ7
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) October 28, 2016
Posted today by ProFootballTalk
An NFL Network commentator urged the Eagles to put a bounty on Ezekiel Elliott https://t.co/uZxqzkwSPN
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) October 29, 2016
An Excerpt:
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made clear that bounties will not be tolerated when he cracked down on the Saints in 2012. So it will be interesting to see how the NFL reacts to an NFL employee urging a team putting a bounty on one of the NFL’s brightest young stars.
That’s what happened when NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger appeared on 97.5 The Fanatic and said that on Sunday, the Eagles’ defense should be trying to injure Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott.
“This is the guy that that we’ve got to hurt,” Baldinger said of Elliott. “This is the guy that we’ve got to take out of the game. There’s got to be 10 guys that want to hurt him every single play. In fact, we may even put a little bounty on Ezekiel Elliott.”
Baldinger also echoed a favorite phrase of Gregg Williams during the Saints bounty scandal.
“You want to cut off the head to kill the body, that’s the guy you’ve got to get to,” Baldinger said.
In 2014 the NFL reached a concussion settlement with the Retired NFL Players on their lawsuit. As of 9-29-16 a small party of retired players are still awaiting a decision by the US Supreme Court whether or not they will hear their appeal. This is effectively blocking the the 99 percent of players who approved the settlement from formerly filing claims.
Don’t fool yourselves, this is the true reason the Rodger Goodell led NFL, cracked down on the Saints alleged bounty program in 2012. Many stories have come out about other teams having bounty systems, but the Saints were a high profile target at that time.
So it is curious wouldn’t you say, that the NFL today remains silent on the recent bounty talk. You would think they will have to make some kind of comment in the near future after the remarks of one of their commentators.