Steve Young isn’t only a Hall of Fame quarterback. He’s also a lawyer. And in his legal opinion, the bounty scandal in New Orleans is outrageous, egregious, preposterous.
Young said on ESPN today that he believes a player who was injured against the Saints during the three years that defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was running a bounty program, paying players for knocking opponents out of games, would have a good case for a lawsuit.
“I was shocked at the fact that it was institutionalized and that they paid for hurt players,” Young said. “I think it opens up, if I’m hurt against the Saints in the last couple years, I’m suing the Saints.”
Young said the fact that the bounties came from the coaching staff makes the team culpable.
“It’s institutionalized by the coaches, and it’s institutionalized to pay them for actually injuring somebody,” Young said. “The problem is that they institutionalized paying somebody for actually hurting them. To me that goes to the integrity of the game. The fact that they institutionalized it tells me that this is a big issue.”
There’s no question it’s a big issue. The question is whether the ramifications of the issue will be confined to the league office, or whether this story could find its way to a courtroom.