The NFL ... It's a hit!

Bounty-gate. Sounds so much cooler than Spygate. Doesn't it?

I won't get into which is the bigger evil (because I would have to say "cheating" is always worse), but the debate during the last few days about the New Orleans Saints taking out bounties on opposing players has been very interesting indeed. Especially when the debate is among former NFL players.

Mike Golic of ESPN, one of the more likable ex-players turned talking head, has been the most outspoken that bounty-gate is much ado about nothing. Golic was as tough as they come on the field. He played defensive line for Notre Dame and then in the NFL in the late '80s and early '90s. As he says ... "I was going to hit you as hard as I could whether there was an extra five grand on the line or not." I believe him. But that's Golic. He was tough, but not insane. Not a borderline criminal. You can't say that about all of today's players. Or yesterday's.

How do you think ex-Pat Brandon Meriweather would react if told he could make an extra $5,000 if he made sure the opposing quarterback was carried off the field and didn't come back. They haven't created knee pads strong enough to stop him. And that's what this is all about. Greg Williams, one of the slimier coaches to walk the NFL sideline during the past few decades, allegedly told his players to "get as close to the line" of decent behavior as they could and he would tell them when they went over the line. That's different from telling a player to hit hard, intimidate, play all-out all the time. It just is.

It's a mindset. Of course NFL players -- mostly on defense -- are going to try to hit opponents as hard as they can. That's the nature of the game. That's why the equipment continues to get bigger and bigger. But if before the coin is tossed, before the first ball is snapped, an entire team's mentality is not just to hit hard but hit with intent to injure then that does change the way players approach the game. Football and violence are synonymous. Football and assault should not be. There are clean, hard hits. And there are dirty, hard hits. Greg Williams was urging his players to be dirty. And he was seeing that they were financially rewarded for it. That should bring nothing less than a lifetime suspension.

I'm not an NFL peacenik. I still miss the bench-clearing hockey brawls. Rodney Harrison is one of my all-time favorites. I wanted Favre hit hard and hit often in 2010 along with everyone else in the football loving world (except ESPN employees of course). As Golic says, this stuff has been going on since the game began. But times are changing. The lines are being redrawn. And coaches advocating injuring players is way across that line.

The NFL has been putting out "The NFL's Hardest Hits!" videos since the moment the VCR was invented. It's part of the game. One of the best parts. And the league has been selling it for years. But there really is a difference between hitting someone as hard as you can and hitting them so that the doctors have to pick their parts up off the turf. The league has been trying to control the violence in the game. Especially the violence that leads to serious injuries like concussions. It's an uphill battle but one worth climbing. That's why the response should be harsh. You can line a player up for a hard hit, but if there's an extra $5k on the table you might just line him up a little lower. Say, at the knees. The message the bounties were sending was that it's not just good enough to hit hard, you have to hit hard enough to injure.

Mike Golic might not think there is a difference. But a guy like Brandon Meriweather would.