Brett Favre Scandal After Retirement Yrs

Bounty on Favre

Did the Saints cheat and should they be stripped of their Super Bowl title?

Could the Green Bay Packers have fed the kitty to up the ante on their so-called 'traitor'?


I have to take this blog out of retirement...

A bounty? The Saints needed to get an edge somehow to defeat Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings and giving the defense extra financial incentives appears to have tainted the outcome of the 2009 NFC Championship game.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/03/05/brett-favre-happy-that-truth-on-...

Darren Sharper, Favre's old Packers teammate claims no such bounty existed. Yet, it's reported that the Saint's Jonathon Vilma offered 10 grand to anyone who knocked the quarterback out of the game.

My initial feelings watching that game were that the Saints were coming on every play and they would hit Favre even if they didn't need to. On a hand off to Adrian Peterson? Going high low on Favre could have been cheap, but you don't know that the players hitting him simultaneously knew the other was zeroing in on that play.

My feelings were the protection wasn't as good as it should have been. And, once it was known the Saints were blitzing, other plays should have been called to alleviate the pressure and to make the opponent pay for over aggressiveness.

Despite their efforts, Favre could not be done in. A testament to his durability, though that game likely shortened his career. It's not possible to make a case for Favre's game ending pick on the Saints' assault, but one has to wonder the outcome if the officials caught more of the cheating and the Sean Peyton's team were forced to call off the heat.

NFL rules dictate no bounties. Bounties that inspire dirty play or to harm another player is below the belt and should not be tolerated. It's unfortunate the impact that game has likely had on Favre's chances to write a storybook ending to his career. The Saints had a formula that worked for them that year. In hindsight, it should be stripped from them like an NCAA team that grossly ignored the rules.

Favre's comments on this subject are eye-opening. As a quarterback, he's not unaware their have been headhunters out there during his career. He just never imagined it would get as dirty as it did during his last shot at the Super Bowl. Though, he should not be really surprised. But, I don't blame him if he is hurt that a friend like Sharper may have resorted to that, and maybe that is why his former teammate is in denial while everyone else is blowing their whistles.

Now, something else to consider. What if the Packer's organization pitched into that pool of money to see Favre dumped on his butt? The motivation to see him fail would have been great. He was very close to succeeding that year. I don't know if the investigation will ever uncover that, unless former Packer teammates wanted to see Favre fail and a name or two surfaces for adding to the ante. The league, however, isn't likely go after another organization, if the Pack was involved somehow in motivating the Saints' players. They have the necessary culprits clearly in their scopes to make an example of, and then we will likely not hear about this subject once the media gets tired of beating this story into the earth.

I'm sure the league would like to be done with the lame named 'bounty gate' and see the matter go away.

But first, they delve deeper...

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/03/06/saints-defender-after-favre-inju...