If we sat here and wrote about every person who has blasted Gregg Williams and the Saints for running a bounty program, we would never write about anything else. However, some reactions are just more noteworthy than others. Take former Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton for example, who blamed Williams for Peyton Manning’s initial neck injury during a recent interview. He also offered an interesting take on the violent culture that has overtaken the NFL.
“I think (people who say the NFL has gone soft are) out of line,” Tarkenton said when speaking to ESPN Chicago’s Waddle and Silvy. “I think it’s the gangster rap and this and this and all the stuff and we are going to go out and knock their head sideways. It’s all wrong.”
Damn kids and their sideways hats and their boom boxes and gold chains. You want to stop the violence across the NFL? Go after the rap industry first. While that comment was my personal favorite from Tarkenton’s interview, his comments about Williams and Manning were intriguing as well.
“The American people should be outraged,” he said. “This is not the way it is. That’s not what the foundation of football was about. Gregg Williams should never be able to be in the NFL again. He has done this at Tennessee, he did it in Buffalo, he did it with the Washington Redskins, he’s done it here.
“I got a YouTube video of when Peyton Manning’s neck got hurt the first time because he had a bounty on him by Gregg Williams where someone hit him low and another guy hit him around the head and twisted his neck. It was unbelievable. That’s where it started.”
Tarkenton is not the first person to blame Williams for Manning’s injury, and there is certainly some evidence to support the claim. Last year, Tony Dungy said he believed Manning suffered his initial neck injury in 2006 when he took a hit from former Redskins defensive end Phillip Daniels. Williams was Washington’s defensive coordinator at the time. Dungy also said a little over a month ago that he believes the Titans targeted Peyton while Williams was in Tennessee.
Maybe if this rap sensation wasn’t sweeping the nation then Peyton Manning would still be contending for Super Bowls in Indianapolis.
Photo credit: Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE
