
Originally Posted by
Yves
So by your standard all athletes are jerks. Like I said, this is flatly untrue. If you are saying there is a higher probability I would be veeeeery inclined to buy that as a true statement.
And look, I am going to assume that you played football if you have friends in the NFL. I did for over 18 years. As a guy who played SS, Mike, Sam, Will, and DE I can attest that once you're in that locker room, clubhouse, or field the constraints of morality are pretty much gone. Yes, you feel bad after the game for what you did but you did it because it's your damn job. As a Mike, my job on running formations was to pound the A gaps and break whoever came through there first and make them never want to do it again. On passing situations we ran a variation of a shallow Tampa-2 which meant that my job was to put whoever came across my zones on their ass if the ball came into the vicinity. As a Will on overload blitzes I went facemask-to-facemask with the QB and believe me - the shit you say on the field is just awful. But that's the game. That's the culture during preparation and during play. But afterwards, it's all about the brotherhood. So, framing football as it actually exists, a bounty scandal is in bad taste and against the rules but only because it involves money. If you played D or O-Line or FB/TE and never once took some pride in putting a guy on the sidelines for a day because you dished out more punishment than he could handle you certainly weren't playing the same game as me. And let's be honest - when you drop another man onto the bench for the day you get mad props when your series is over.
Like I said, I felt bad after the game was over. Hell - I broke a QB's collarbone on a borderline late hit and he and I are great friends 10 years later.
On-topic, I obviously advocate the return of the HNM but prefer it to be for trivial items simply because it will provide with the content we like but also appease many of the objections.