Adam Archuleta didn’t think ‘bounty program’ was unusual
Mar 21, 2012, 7:34 PM | Updated: 9:52 pm
Adam Archuleta played in the NFL for seven seasons,
spending time with the St. Louis Rams, Washington Redskins
and Chicago Bears.
The former Sun Devil’s time in Washington was spent
playing for defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.
Yes, the same Williams who has been suspended indefinitely
for running a “bounty program” in New Orleans, which
offered players money for injuring opposing players.
“There was a reward system and it was usually something
that, most of the time, in almost every team I ever played
on it was kind of governed by the players for just big
plays,” Archuleta told Arizona Sports 620’s Burns and
Gambo.
“We had our own self-imposed fine system, and you just got
rewarded for how you performed in the games.”
But things were different in Washington.
“It was actually organized and done by Gregg, and it was
more for the entire defense,” Archuleta said, “and one of
the things that was on there was ‘knockout hits’ or
knocking somebody out of the game.”
Archuleta admitted not thinking too much of it, since big
hits were always part of the player-run system. In fact,
he thought it was just more organized in Washington, with
Williams doling out the money at the team’s Saturday night
meetings.
“I thought it was just a tool to try to cultivate a nasty
culture and us being the most physical and intimidating
defense we could possibly be,” he said. “And quite
honestly it was kind of fun, on a Saturday night, to sit
back and see who got the cash from the previous week after
we watched our highlight tape.”
In other words (and Archuleta’s, really), he didn’t really
think anything was wrong or un-kosher with what was
happening.
“I never really thought that anything he said or did was
grossly over the line.”
But, it turns out, the NFL thought differently.
