For the NFL to have cracked down so hard on the New Orleans Saints, it seems bounty operations were commonplace throughout the history of the game.
Former Cleveland Browns defensive back Hanford Dixon recently went on record saying that that mid-80’s Browns team had a players only bounty that rewarded members for hard hits on the field.
In his recently released book Day of the Dawg: A Football Memoir, Dixon elaborated on the Browns bounty system.
Dixon wrote: “The object wasn’t to maim or cause serious injury, but to knock (an opponent) out of the game. These pools would be maybe a couple of hundred bucks, not really that much money.”
To me, it’s starting to sound like a bounty system was a part of the game.
The Saints, just happened to be the one that got caught.