This whole bounty thing is going to be all of the rage for the next week or so. You are going to hear story after story coming out about different bounties that were out there around the NFL. Apparently Tony Dungy is convinced that the Titans had one on Peyton Manning according to Pro Football Talk.
It seems odd to me that Dungy knew about some bounty that was on Manning, but yet he and Jeff Fisher have a really good relationship, and he rolled out the red carpet in week 17 of 2007 for the Titans to make the playoffs.
I would be willing to be that there is some type of "bounty system" in at least 75% of NFL locker rooms. It might not be as well run as the one in New Orleans apparently was, but there is talk of that stuff pretty much everywhere.
It is not like this is something new. Buddy Ryan talk about having bounties on players openly back in the 1980s. The only reason it is such a big deal today is because the NFL has put such an emphasis on player safety. They cannot look like they condone this on any level or they would be opening themselves up to all kinds of lawsuits from former players.
It would seem to be a bit of an outdated practice at this point anyway. Think about this, there was the story from yesterday that Jonathan Vilma offered $10,000 for someone to take out Brett Favre. An illegal hit on Favre would get a player at least a $20,000 fine from the league. It sure doesn't seem worth it.
It really is terrible if players are intentionally trying to hurt other players, but let's not act like this is something new that only terrible people were doing.