Head coach of the New Orleans Saints, Sean Payton, along with defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, have been recently punished for running a bounty program against opposing players in 2009. In class on April 3rd, we discussed the deviance in sport. One aspect of sporting deviance is violence. This bounty program offers a clear example of violence in football. The extent to which the NFL went to punish those involved with this program shows their desire to eliminate unnecessary violence from the game. Sean Payton was suspended for one year without pay, while Williams has been suspended indefinitely. In addition, the Saints organization has been fined $500,000 and has had two second round draft picks taken away. The severity of these punishments hopefully will lead to the reduction of deviant violence in football.
In Coakley's text on page 199, he discusses the violence as a norm in sport. He contends that as athletes are socialized, they are taught consistently to do violent acts. Young athletes are taught to hit as hard as possible and to use the body as a weapon. As seen in the case of this Saints bounty program, the norms continue in the professional level, however, monetary rewards are now a factor. The bounty program is without a doubt an atrocity to the sport of football, but it is possible that this type of violence has become socialized to the point of being a norm in today's game.
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