Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
Former Minnesota Vikings All-Pro receiver Cris Carter says he put “bounties” on opposing players as a form of protection during his 16-year NFL career.
Carter, currently an ESPN NFL analyst, said Tuesday night on “Hill and Schlereth” on ESPN Radio that he would offer money to teammates to take out players he thought were trying to take him out.
“I’m guilty of (bounties) — I mean, first time I’ve ever admitted it — but I put a bounty on guys before,” Carter told the show. “I put bounties on guys. If a guy tries to take me out, a guy takes a cheap shot on me? I put a bounty on him right now!”
When asked whether the bounties were financial, Carter said: “Absolutely.”
Carter, a Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist for the past five years, said it was a matter of protecting himself from players at a different position, such as linebacker.
“I’d tell one of them guards, ‘Hey man, this dude is after me, man,'” Carter said.
The 46-year-old told of former Pro Bowl linebacker Bill Romanowski, then with the Denver Broncos, threatening to hurt him in pregame warm-ups.
“Bill Romanowski — he told me he was going to take me out before the game, warm-ups. No problem. (He said,) ‘I’m gonna end your career, Carter.’ No problem. “I put a little change on his head before the game. Protect myself. Protect my family. That’s the league that I grew up in,” Carter said.
When asked whether he was the only one doing that, Carter responded: “Hell, no.
“Listen, on the football field, you only got certain protection, and your teammates are part of that protection. It’s built in, and if I’m playing a certain position where I can’t protect myself — how can the quarterback protect himself? But for his teammates to stand up and do something,” Carter said. “There are certain positions you can’t protect yourself.
“The center? How can he protect himself? He’s snapping the ball every time. Like if someone is taking a cheap shot on him? No problem. We’ve got a way to work that out.”
Carter’s comments came one day after New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma and three others appealed league-mandated suspensions for their alleged roles in that team’s three-year bounty program.
An NFL investigation determined the Saints ran a bounty system from 2009 to 2011 that offered thousands of dollars to players for big hits that knocked opponents out of games. In March, Goodell suspended Saints head coach Sean Payton for all of next season without pay, suspended former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams indefinitely and levied other penalties against the club.
But Carter told “Hill and Schlereth” that during his playing days, bounties weren’t meant to purposefully injure other players.
“But you have to realize the league we grew up in, the bounty was based on protection, or a big hit, excitement or for helping your team win. It wasn’t to maim or hurt the dude,” said Carter, who retired from the NFL following the 2002 season. “When a guy said he was going to hurt me, my recourse was to put a bounty on him to make sure.”
–ESPN
