The New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, also known as “Bountygate,” happened over 10 years ago — but NFL MVP Brett Favre has joined Jason Whitlock on “Fearless” to discuss it now.
The scandal itself was an incident in which Saints players were accused of being paid bonuses, or “bounties,” for purposely injuring players on opposing teams.
Favre says “Bountygate” doesn’t bother him, and Whitlock wants to know why.
“Why doesn’t the bounty thing bother you?” Whitlock asks.
“Well, I think they’re always out to get the quarterback or the star running back,” Favre says.
“I mean,” he continues, “there’s a way to do it, there’s a way not to do it. It’s the way the Saints did it was the way not to do it. But I can’t say that I was hit any different than I’ve been hit in my career up to that point.”
Favre recalls that early on in his career, he thought offering bounties was “just the way it was.”
According to Favre, past coaches would walk into the locker room and say things like, “‘You know we got the Kansas City Chiefs tomorrow, I got $5,000 for whoever takes Steve DeBerg out.’”
He says he just thought that “it was a way to motivate the guys to get the best player out of the game.”
While according to sources, Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma put a $10,000 bounty on Favre’s head, he says he’s not going to blame a loss on the bounty.
“I still had a chance to make a play. Just one play. I made some good ones, I played my heart out, but I needed one more, and I didn’t do it, and it wasn’t because of the bounty.”
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