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Senate to hold hearing on bounties in major sports.. seriously???

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R

Ripclawe

Banned
RUN TO THE CAMERA!!

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7...senator-dick-durbin-sets-hearing-bounties-nfl
WASHINGTON -- The Senate wants to grill the NFL about bounties. And the NBA, NHL, NCAA and Major League Baseball are invited, too.

Sen. Dick Durbin is setting up a Judiciary Committee hearing about bounties in professional football and other major sports in the wake of news that New Orleans Saints players received extra cash for hits that hurt particular opponents.

The assistant Senate majority leader, an Illinois Democrat, said Thursday he wants to examine whether federal law should make such bounty systems a crime.

"Let's be real basic about it here. If this activity were taking place off of a sporting field, away from a court, nobody would have a second thought (about whether it's wrong). 'You mean, someone paid you to go out and hurt someone?'" Durbin said in a telephone interview before raising the issue on the floor of the Senate.

"It goes way beyond the rules of any sporting contest, at least team contest, to intentionally inflict harm on another person for a financial reward," he said.

His announcement came a day after the NFL took a harsh stand on bounties, suspending Saints coach Sean Payton for all of next season, and indefinitely banning their former defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams. Saints general manager Mickey Loomis was barred for half of 2012, assistant head coach Joe Vitt got a six-game ban, and the team also was docked two second-round draft picks (one in 2012 and another in '13) and $500,000.

Payton is the first head coach suspended by the league for any reason.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell still needs to decide what penalties to give players who were involved in the Saints' scheme from 2009-11.

The NFLPA on Thursday said in a statement that it still is waiting for cooperation from the Saints and NFL to set up interviews.

"NFLPA leadership looks forward to meeting with the Commissioner to discuss the League's 'Bounty' investigation," the NFLPA said. "To date, neither the League, nor the Saints, have helped us facilitate interviews with members of management or the coaching staff. We expect the League to provide all information so that we can ensure a fair process for all who were involved."

Durbin said he was pleased by the severity of Goodell's punishment against the Saints.

"I am encouraged by what the National Football League did. What they came down with as a penalty on the New Orleans Saints was decisive and historic," Durbin said, adding that he thought the league was "taking this very seriously."

But moving forward, the NFL and other leagues must "come up with standards to make sure this isn't going to happen again," he said. Otherwise, lawmakers will need to "at least explore whether it is necessary to have federal legislation in this area."

One possibility, Durbin explained, would be to extend federal sports bribery laws to cover bounties, so that "if someone offers in a team sports situation some sort of value, money or otherwise, to intentionally hurt another player, that, in fact, would be a crime."

In an email to the AP, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello wrote: "Commissioner Goodell has taken strong action to ensure that bounties are eliminated from the NFL. We have not heard from Senator Durbin but would be pleased to discuss the matter with him."

Under the bounty system overseen in New Orleans by Williams -- who was hired in January by the St. Louis Rams -- the targeted players included quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton, Brett Favre and Kurt Warner. "Knockouts" were worth $1,500 and "cart-offs" $1,000, with payments doubled or tripled for the playoffs.

According to the league, Saints defensive captain Jonathan Vilma offered $10,000 to any player who knocked then-Vikings QB Favre out of the 2010 NFC Championship Game.

Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, in an interview on the "Judd & Phunn" show on 1500 ESPN Thursday, said he would like to see both Williams and Vilma banned for life from the NFL.

"My position has always been that I think Vilma and Gregg Williams should be banned for life and then Payton should get a year, their GM should get a year and anyone who knowingly took money after a hit that injured someone should get a year as well," Kluwe said.

Durbin isn't sure when the hearing will happen, but he said it could be two to three weeks from now.
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L

LuchaShaq

Banned
Any Congressman who refuses to participate since this is a waste of time/money has my vote no matter the party affiliation.
 
E

ElectricBlanketFire

Member
Rentahamster said:
Don't they have better things to do?
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laugh1v6b1.gif


First time ever posting that GIF. There's no turning back now.
 
H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
Well, they kind of have a point. If it was off the field activity, and there were bounties on causing substantial injuries to someone, it would definitely be a crime. Not necessarily one that the Senate needs to hold hearings about, but definitely more important than whether someone's taking illegal supplements.
 
B

BlueTsunami

there is joy in sucking dick
Oh God, this is gonna be like MLB steroid testing all over again. Wasting time on an issue that doesn't need this sort of support.
 
H

HammerOfThor

Member
he is only trying to protect out Bears from getting more injuries.

Fuck you Durbin. Damn I hate our politics. All the shit going wrong with our state and THAT is what he focuses on =/
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Fucking sports: serious business.

There's no reason for the Senate to be doing anything about this. Please stop obsessing over dumb sports controversies and focus on things actually affecting the country.
 
L

Loki

Count of Concision
MUCH more important than holding hearings on how the financial industry conspired to fleece the nation and crippled the world economy. Good to see they have their priorities straight.
 
S

SRG01

Member
Htown said:
Well, they kind of have a point. If it was off the field activity, and there were bounties on causing substantial injuries to someone, it would definitely be a crime. Not necessarily one that the Senate needs to hold hearings about, but definitely more important than whether someone's taking illegal supplements.
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Yep. This guy gets it. "Bounties" are without a doubt criminal activities if held elsewhere. Just because it happens on the field doesn't mean they're cannot be held accountable.

People have already been charged with assault in the NHL, so this makes sense.


edit: PS, What the fuck at people saying Congress has better things to do. It's not like this hearing is going to replace their existing work!
 
A

abusori

Member
So paying people to injure other people shouldn't be illegal because sports?
smh, sports-gaf. And "should be worrying about other things" is bs.
 
I

Invisible_Insane

Member
What I still have trouble understanding is how anyone who makes at LEAST 300K dollars a year would be motivated to do anything by a bonus equal to something on the order of .0003% of salary.

Ridiculous.
 
I

InertiaXr

Member
Invisible_Insane said:
What I still have trouble understanding is how anyone who makes at LEAST 300K dollars a year would be motivated to do anything by a bonus equal to something on the order of .0003% of salary.

Ridiculous.
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You can't understand that there can be more than explicit monetary benefits to persuade somebody to do something?
 
I

Invisible_Insane

Member
InertiaXr said:
You can't understand that there can be more than explicit monetary benefits to persuade somebody to do something?
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I don't think it's clear that the bounties provided incentives over and above existing incentives. Those with the inclination to win games at the expense of the health of their competitors would have done so anyway, since the financial gain is relatively small and the intangibles/unquantifiables are likely to have existed anyway.
 
A

Anton Sugar

Member
Korey said:
Good for them.

Intentionally trying to injure someone is a crime, on or off the court.
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Yeah, I think people are forgetting that players were paid to "knockout" or "cart-off" players on the other team. For anyone not familiar, a cart-off means the player can't leave the field himself and has to be carted off. Not just a fucking boo-boo.

I don't know if a Senate hearing is necessary, but let's not just sweep this under as "boys will be boys, rub some dirt on it!"
 
E

Earthstrike

Member
Don't really get the "more important things" comments. A senate is supposed to tackle a lot of issues every year, not just a small handful. Not to mention the republicans are in power and are a party of solving problems by doing nothing, AND not to mention plans to solve major problems are already underway.
 
I

Invisible_Insane

Member
Anton Sugar said:
Yeah, I think people are forgetting that players were paid to "knockout" or "cart-off" players on the other team. For anyone not familiar, a cart-off means the player can't leave the field himself and has to be carted off. Not just a fucking boo-boo.

I don't know if a Senate hearing is necessary, but let's not just sweep this under as "boys will be boys, rub some dirt on it!"
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Did it happen? And more importantly, did it happen at a rate that significantly exceeded injuries incurred by teams playing without a bounty system in place?
 
M

Magilla

Banned
Earthstrike said:
Don't really get the "more important things" comments. A senate is supposed to tackle a lot of issues every year, not just a small handful. Not to mention the republicans are in power and are a party of solving problems by doing nothing, AND not to mention plans to solve major problems are already underway.
Click to expand...

For me it is more what do they hope to accomplish? The NFL and NHL are probably the only sports that need to worry about bounties and both of these sports are aggressively fining and suspending players for certain violent actions. I just don't see what the government is going to do that the various Leagues aren't already doing themselves.
 
H

helloresolven

Member
Dan said:
Fucking sports: serious business.

There's no reason for the Senate to be doing anything about this. Please stop obsessing over dumb sports controversies and focus on things actually affecting the country.
Click to expand...

The major sports leagues are granted legal monopolies by the federal government. Until those are revoked, the leagues are going to have to put up with grandstanding.


Earthstrike said:
Don't really get the "more important things" comments. A senate is supposed to tackle a lot of issues every year, not just a small handful. Not to mention the republicans are in power and are a party of solving problems by doing nothing, AND not to mention plans to solve major problems are already underway.
Click to expand...
This too. Like a single committee hearing is going to derail all that amazing work our Republican and Democrat senators are getting done... yeah...
 
oneils

oneils

Member
Politicians love making hay out of this bullshit. You don't need to know anything to run off at the mouth and be self-righteous for the cameras.
 
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