Everyone seems to have a strong opinion on the Saints’ bounty program under former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. Rather predictably, former NFL linebacker Bill Romanowski’s opinion is that it’s being blown out of proportion by the media.
“I want to press to calm down a little bit and realize and take a look at the sport of football, and realize that it’s a violent sport,” Romanowski told 95.7 The Game in San Francisco. “You’re paid, on defense, to knock the living daylights out of people. The harder you hit people, the more you are paid. The more you are respected, the more you are liked, the more you are cheered. It’s a reality.”
Romanowski is onto something. The NFL inherently promotes violence. Big hitters get paid big bucks. But the difference for the Saints is that they were paying players to physically injure other players. And Romanowski stated in his 95.7 The Game interview that he’s not a proponent of that.
“I wanted to hit that guy hard enough to where he saw stars maybe, but never to where he could never play again [or] he would have a broken neck, a broken bone, anything that would hurt him in any way permanently. I never wanted to do that.”
Per the NFL’s investigation, however, the Saints did want to cause significant injuries -- to hit opponents so hard that they had to be removed from the game and carted off the field.