What price glory? The average life expectancy of an N.F.L. player is roughly fifty-five years, although there may be some quibbling here, they usually aren’t around to collect social security. So, this latest scandal, the bounty hunting scandal centrally involving the Saints, which at the time of their super bowl appearance in 2010, were hailed as God’s team, with Bourbon Street extended to the Vatican, an unholy alliance culminating in an act of god:
Father Raymond de Souza: A spiritual bond has since been established between the team and its city, as if somehow the rise of the Saints post-Katrina is the rise of the city from the waters of the flood. A Super Bowl for the Saints would no doubt be considered an act of God — perhaps considered divine compensation for the act of God that laid the city low….
No other team has quite the religious trappings of the Saints, which is suitable for New Orleans, where the sacred and very profane jostle for room. They call their corporate sponsors “patron saints.” There is a cheering nun on the banner of their homepage. And they are not shy about calling upon God for a little assistance. The Saints customarily have a Mass celebrated before their Sunday games, which is not uncommon in the NFL. But on Monday? Saints’ owner Tom Benson, a practising Catholic, opted for a pre-game Mass this past season before their biggest game,…Read More:http://fatherdesouza.ca/?p=257#more-257
This whole “scandal” smells of plantation politics. Basically black players injuring other black players and the white master has to step in and help what Malcolm X called the “field negroes.” It smacks of racism that the whites make the laws and the blacks execute them. Bounties and head hunting has been in the game for some time, this is not a new phenomenon, and the amounts apparently peddled out the players seem like chump change compared to their salaries. The scandal as an artificial creation, giving the league some publicity during a quiet time and filling in the break before the draft?
The Saints’ bounty scandal is a saga with multiple moving parts and tentacles that reach in many directions across the NFL landscape. New Orleans might represent ground zero in the story, but the impact of the Saints’ pay-for-pain affair will reverberate throughout the league, with some of the principle figures involved now with other organizations and other teams being drawn into the investigation by virtue of their past links to former New Orleans defensive coordinator and bounty pool organizer Gregg Williams….The league just spent parts of three years investigating the Saints bounty program, and wants to clearly send a message that this kind of activity must stop right now, at this crucial pivot point. A culture change regarding all pay-for-performance thinking is what the NFL seeks. Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/don_banks/03/06/saints/index.html#ixzz1oO84Cmke
So the players are depicted as savages, and the owners cry ignorance over this poaching and illegal big game hunting.If they want to clean up the game, they should simply abolish it in its present form since it makes no sense for people to live 25-30 years less than their normal life expectancy. Plus the injuries they drag around for the rest of their lives. Companies “head hunt” competitor’s employees all the time, our secret services engage in “targeted assassinations” , crime syndicates routinely kill off the turf invaders. SO, football is simply a reflection of the larger society.
…announced Friday that 22 to 27 defensive players on the New Orleans Saints maintained a “pay for performance” program that included “bounty” payments administered by then-defensive coordinator Gregg Williams during the 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons.The program runs in violation of league rules, and the investigation showed that Saints players received $1,500 for a “knockout” hit and $1,000 for a “cart-off” hit with payouts doubling or tripling during the team’s three playoff appearances. The program also entailed payments for interceptions and fumble recoveries, which also violates league rules against non-contract bonuses.Read More:http://boston.barstoolsports.com/random-thoughts/new-orleans-saints-coaches-put-bounties-on-guys-heads/
Years ago, an ex-college player for Texas, Gary Shaw, wrote a book, Meat on the Hoof, about this insidious business of raising football players like prize cattle- the cattle are treated better- in a tangle of social Darwinism that creepily vascillates between slave labor and Nazi SS brainwashing; psychological manipulation, dependency, and the establishment of caste systems with the inferior meat discarded or fed to the wolves. It doesn’t seem like much has changed in forty years.
ADDENDUM:
Well now, there’s an alarming new study about the dangers of pro football. The study, by the University of North Carolina, suggests the average life expectancy of a retired NFL player is 55 years. If that’s true, NFL players can expect to lose about 25 years off their life, as a result of their profession. The study also suggests retired NFL players suffer from Alzheimer’s at a 37 per cent higher rate than average. Read More:http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/show-sports/the-average-life-expectancy-of-an-nfl-player-is-55-years.html