The Misconception With Bounties

For this post, I have to break my rule just because this is one of the best dunks of the College Basketball season. I know this video was the top play on Sportscenter, but how can you argue for any other play from this past week? This Minnesota player, Rodney Williams, flat out embarrassed the player on Nebraska. You can see Williams rushing to get the ball because he knew that he would have an easy dunk if he did. He was certainly right. Since the defender tried to get the charge call and didn't even try and play the ball, he set himself up to get dunked on. Although this was an amazing dunk, I do think that the charge should have been called, from what I can see at least. That got me thinking; I don't think I've ever seen a huge dunk like this ever called off by a charge call. I think if the guy goes up and dunks over someone, regardless of if it was a charge or not, they won't get it called against them. 

Now to address, likely, the most talked about story in sports within the past few days. The story being the New Orleans Saints recent accusation of putting bounties on big hits during games and against opposing players. While I agree that the Saints should be fined and punished because they made the situation big enough to get caught, it's still making me angry that former NFL players are acting like they've never done something like it in their careers. 

Here are a few former players talking about their experience

I don't understand how these guys can sit there and lie about this. My guess at least, and I obviously could and may be wrong, is that there isn't a professional defensive player in the NFL who doesn't go out for every game and have on his mind that he wants to hurt someone on the other team. When you play as a defensive player, there is absolutely nothing better than causing pain to another player by way of tackling or hitting them. Now, with that being said, it's a different story to want to go out and injure someone and cause them to leave the game. There is a line that is crossed at one point, and causing someone a severe injury isn't desired, but if it's done through a clean, legal hit, it's still pretty cool. I just don't get why these former players would sit there and lie about what actually goes on in a locker room and in a players head. They are glorifying this situation to a point where it shouldn't be. Now, like I said before, the Saints should be punished for this for allowing the situation to get large enough for people to find out, but people need to know that things like this happen in every locker room from high school to the NFL.