The NFL’s bounty scandal — combined with the mounting number of concussion lawsuits by former players and damning scientific studies — has put football at a crossroads.
Change is inevitable. There are too many circumstances coming together to dismiss it. There are too many victims fighting back.
You may not like it, but public opinion has little to do with forcing change. In fact, public opinion is often dragged along kicking and screaming during cultural change.
And those who control the culture — in this case the players — have little to do with dramatic change as well. They often have been part of the problem.
Consider some of the comments from current and former NFL players about former Saints and Redskins defensive coach Gregg Williams, who established bounties for hits that hurt opposing players.
Former NFL quarterback Brett Favre told Sports Illustrated that he wasn’t upset about the practice, which was revealed in an NFL investigation.
“It’s football,” Favre said.
Former Redskins safety Matt Bowen, writing in the Chicago Tribune, said bounties are the cost of doing business in the NFL.
“It’s a fundamental part of the NFL’s culture that isn’t talked about outside of team facilities. … Bounties, cheap shots, whatever you want to call them, they are a part of this game,” he wrote.
But that culture is on trial right now, and business as usual will not be a valid defense. Perhaps it all changed when late Bears safety Dave Duerson put a shotgun to his chest a year ago and shot himself, leaving a note saying he wanted his brain to be donated to science.
When researchers cut open Duerson’s brain, they found the same thing they had discovered in other NFL players who died prematurely — brain disease, specifically chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Nothing has been business as usual for the NFL since.
There are more than 700 former NFL players — and counting — who are part of lawsuits that claim they have brain damage and charge the NFL with negligence, among other issues.
Why else do you think the NFL — if this has been an unspoken but widely known practice among teams for years — finally decided to act in 2010 with an aggressive investigation?
It wasn’t about player safety. It was about liability.
Now you have those representing the league — coaches and general managers — knowingly allowing bounties for devastating hits that could result in injuries to opposing players. The NFL report says both Saints coach Sean Peyton and general manager Mickey Loomis were aware of the practice.
Look for a long line of GMs and coaches to be deposed about “bounties” in mounting lawsuits against the NFL culture.
Like Sam Cooke sang, “A change is gonna come.”
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
