Former Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Cris Carter turned some heads when he started telling stories of his teammates putting bounties on people when he played in the NFL. After all, the Vikings were one of the teams at the heart of the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal that saw a bunch of players suspended, draft picks taken away and more than one coach reprimanded.
Of course, there is a difference in the stories of the New Orleans bounties and the bounties that Carter brought up. In his case, the bounties were simply to protect himself and his teammates from injury. ESPN's Kevin Seifert sees a big distinction.
"It wasn't to maim or hurt the dude," Carter said. "When a guy said he was going to hurt me, my recourse was to put a bounty on him to make sure."
Maybe it's semantics, but paying an offensive lineman to give Romanowski an extra shove is a lot different than, say, offering money to knock a starting quarterback out of a playoff game. Carry on.
There is quite a difference there, yes. Carter might have overblown the idea of putting a bounty on another player just to downplay what the Saints did. If Carter and his teammates never meant to hurt anyone, the two different bounty stories are, indeed, pretty much exact opposites.
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