Behavior Behind the Bounty

Right in the middle of football's tug of war between the need for violence and the desire for safety resides the bounty issue. 

Defensive coordinator Greg Williams offered cash rewards for big hits that sidelined opposing players. That much has been proven, but what has not been resolved is how the game gets just the right amount of violence to keep people watching and the desire for everyone to walk off the field under their own power.

That ideal middle ground between violence and safety will never be bridged no matter what the league does. 

Football is a multi-billion dollar industry that is entirely dependent on grown men exerting their physical will on each other for entertainment purposes. Without these hulks running into each other at full speed, football would have the exact same national appeal as competitive crocheting. There is no football without physically jarring hits that end up on Youtube. 

Still, it's the fan's love of football's violence that breeds, nurtures, and has helped the game grow to it's unfathomable heights. Anyone who thinks that is not the case, can look at what the game would look like if guys were not allowed to tackle (start watching at :41) and make a case that it is a better game. 

Simply put you can't not tackle people in football and expect the fans to stay committed to the game. Besides, there are so many rewards for NFL players who make the violent hits the league is so afraid of.

Let's take a look at what a person can get for running into a person with the force of a wrecking ball at the speed of a train. The rewards for leveling people in football include millions of dollars, your last name on the backs of countless jerseys across the country, and opportunities for more money by making yourself the face of a food chain or (and there could not be any more irony here) and insurance company. Just ask Justin Tuck and Ndamukong Suh, the NFL's faces of Subway. Both of these men were chosen to represent the chain while holding a job that is based on driving men into the ground at full force. 

Besides, the voices of the players have been neglected throughout the assault on their culture. From Ravens safety Bernard Pollard blasted Goodell for the punishments to Cardinals kicker Jay Feely saying the NFL only cares about defending themselves against lawsuits the voices of the players have been muffled. There is the argument that the players are so engulfed in their own culture that they are ignorant to the dangers they face. Yet in order for the argument to be resolved, all sides of the issue need to be heard, not just the sides that are convenient for the league to hear.

The league has made the predictable, and correct, move of hammering the Saints for the program. Goodell has made an example of the Saints in hope that the culture gets curbed. It will not, but the people who watch the game will mistake the punishment as progress and patiently wait to be breastfed more violence in 2012-2013.

The fans got what they want, now it is up to the league to figure out what they want their game to become before everyone stops watching all together.