Former Dallas Cowboys’ player Darren Woodson: Players used rewards, but not bounty system – NFL News
While everyone around the National Football League (NFL) is talking about Gregg Williams and his infamous ‘pay for performance’ strategy, former Dallas Cowboys’ defensive back, Darren Woodson, who retired from the league in 2004, has said that the Cowboys
also used a reward system back in 1990s to motivate themselves.
However, he strictly denied players’ or the team’s involvement in any misconduct and said that the way Cowboys used to encourage players was much different that Williams’ modus operandi.
He pointed out that offensive players usually receive credit for victories and the defensive players do not get the due fame.
So, he said, to motivate themselves, the players used to roll in a small amount of money and give it to the player who made big plays.
He said:
“Most of the time, it was for fines. We would fine each other – late for a meeting? You got hit a $50 hit. If you give up a touchdown in practice, it’s $10. We’d have all this money accumulated and then we’d all throw in a little extra for a big hit this
week. Or $50 for an interception or what not. We’d add to it if there wasn’t a lot of money in the pot.”
Recently, an NFL investigation revealed that Williams introduced a bounty system when he was with New Orleans Saints. As per the system, if a player knocks out the opponent or injure him, he will be rewarded with as much as $1,500.
The investigation also revealed that during the National Football Conference (NFC) championship game against Minnesota Vikings in 2009, Saints’ linebacker Jonathan Vilma also offered to pay a $10,000 to any player who would knock out Vikings’ quarterback,
Brett Favre.
Saints are dealing with all sorts of troubles for their misconduct, but Woodson said that the system that was followed in his team was much different than Williams’ plans.
Woodson also said that the players used to motivate themselves by the reward system and that the coaches and other officials were even not aware of it.
He said:
“As far as coaches involved, it never got that big at all. These (current) things you’re hearing thousands and thousands of dollars. For us, it was maybe a grand for a pot once.”
What Cowboys used to do might not be as bad as what Saints did as their actions were in consent with coach, Sean Payton, and general manger, Mickey Loomis.
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