NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made clear that bounties will not be tolerated when he cracked down on the Saints in 2012. So it will be interesting to see how the NFL reacts to an NFL employee urging a team putting a bounty on one of the NFL’s brightest young stars.
That’s what happened when NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger appeared on 97.5 The Fanatic and said that on Sunday, the Eagles’ defense should be trying to injure Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott.
“This is the guy that that we’ve got to hurt,” Baldinger said of Elliott. “This is the guy that we’ve got to take out of the game. There’s got to be 10 guys that want to hurt him every single play. In fact, we may even put a little bounty on Ezekiel Elliott.”
Baldinger also echoed a favorite phrase of Gregg Williams during the Saints bounty scandal.
“You want to cut off the head to kill the body, that’s the guy you’ve got to get to,” Baldinger said.
Baldinger accused Elliott of “arrogance” for the way he dressed at the NFL draft and said Elliott “bugs me.” And Baldinger said he’d like to see the Eagles’ defense take umbrage at Elliott, too.
“This is the guy you’ve got to take out. That’s the guy you’ve got to eliminate,” Baldinger said.
Baldinger was an NFL offensive lineman for 11 seasons with the Cowboys, Colts and Eagles. When Baldinger was playing in the 1980s and 1990s, those sentiments may have been commonplace. But in today’s NFL, those sentiments have no place.