Hampton says brutality just part of the NFL

I'm shocked, shocked to find that pain is going on in here!

That was my Captain Renault reaction to hearing — once again — that NFL players were trying to intimidate each other, and in the process win football games and make more money.

The NFL is brutal, horrific and barbaric, and it's the most popular game in America even though everyone knows the defensive objective is to knock the quarterback out of the game.

“If my son is ever part of a team that doesn't teach that,” says Hall of Famer Dan Hampton, “I'll find him another team.”

If that sounds too cruel you should probably find something else to do on Sundays in the fall.

And if Hampton sounds too cold and calculating, it's worth noting that he's had 16 knee surgeries, including his most recent knee replacement.

See, as the best player on his defense, and one of the greatest defensive linemen of all time, Hampton was every bit the target of offensive linemen as were the quarterbacks he and his teammates tried to eliminate from the game.

“It comes with the territory,” Hampton said Monday. “The best players on any team will be a target because you get that player out of the game and you have a better chance of winning.

“I would say there were about 25 episodes a year — times 10 to 12 years — where someone tried to end my career. At least twice a game someone tried to chop-block or maim me.

“You think we didn't know this? You don't think New England wanted Walter Payton out of the Super Bowl? There were four linebackers following him everywhere he went.

“It's the ultimate compliment. When they want you out of the game, that's when you know you've made it in the league.

“If I didn't think that was happening to me I would have been naive and a fool. You had to have your head on a swivel out there.”

Former Saints and current Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is in big trouble with the NFL, which is investigating a bounty system that reportedly paid for targeting the opposition's offensive players.

“Did we have a form of it? Sure,'' Hampton said. “The bounty system 25 years ago was, in effect, a way to identify the good players on the opposition and cultivate an attitude where we were prepared and willing to do whatever we had to do to negate their impact on the game.

“Did we try to knock out the quarterback? Last time I checked, that's a possibility because a team without Dan Marino is a team that's not gonna win.

“Was it sanctioned by coaching? No. But over the years what happened is we were given access to the team fine money — for being late or whatever — and if someone knocked out Tommy Kramer, we'd get $400 and that guy could buy barbecue for the whole team, or something like that. The coaches were aware of it.

“If Gregg Williams had to do this to try to achieve the best effort from his players, well, maybe that's the way he had to fly. Nobody said anything about it when it was good enough to win the Super Bowl, but now that he had a bad year and he's gone, all the rats are out there saying things about it.”

In some form, Hampton says it occurs in all sports.

“I know a lot of professional athletes and it goes on everywhere,” Hampton said. “I'm sure there's a guy on the Spurs who says, ‘Hold Kobe (Bryant) under 20 and I'll buy you dinner.' It's a bounty system, just not as violent as football.

“Guess what? Football is violent.

“If the Giants have Phil Simms and O.J. Anderson and they're a big part of that team, and if we can eliminate them from the game, more power to us.

“If you're not doing that, you're missing out because the other team is trying to do it to you. It's the essence of the game. You think in boxing the goal is to outpoint the opposition? Are they going to outlaw knockouts? OK, how do you do that?

“You can't outlaw it in football, either. It's always been part of the motivation in sports.”

It's getting a lot of attention because concussion and long-term health-related issues have become a huge part of the sports conversation, but the brutality of physical sports like football is nothing new and it's not going away.

“If you want touchy-feely, it ain't gonna fly in football,” Hampton said. “Brutality is your path to winning.

“Buddy Ryan used to say, ‘We're not in the business of playing good. We're in the business of winning.' The best way to win is to eliminate the best players from hurting you.

“How do you do that? You hit them until they leave the field. I don't know about ‘cart-offs' and that stuff, but if you can get a guy within the rules, it's all part of legitimate play.

“The NFL is worried about what people are going to think, but since the beginning of football guys have been doing this. You think Dick Butkus wasn't trying to do it? It was done to him, too.

“I'm not saying chop someone or maim them, but hit them as hard as you can and you never know, they may lose interest in participating in the game.

“Sorry, but that's football.”

ŸListen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's “Hit and Run” show at WSCR 670-AM, and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.