Back in 2012, the New Orleans Saints and head coach Sean Payton were hit with pretty severe punishment from the NFL as a result of the bounty scandal in which coaches were paying players cash incentives to injure opponents. As it turns out, it sounds like Tom Brady was guilty of breaking a similar rule during his playing days – though his incentives did not involve injuring opponents.
During a recent appearance on the Wam Bam podcast, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive lineman Ali Marpet revealed that Tom Brady offered cash incentives out of his own pocket for the offensive linemen for each successful screen pass.
“[Brady] took our starting offensive line to the side and he’s like, ‘Hey, if you guys can get a screen to go for more than 15 yards, I will give you $1,000 cash each,’” Marpet said. “‘That is for you guys, so every time that we get that, I will be happy to make that payment.’”
It’s a nice gesture from Brady that clearly got results, but as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk points out, it technically violates the same major rule as the New Orleans Saints violated during the bounty scandal in 2012.
“The issue of offering players off-the-books incentives became the focal point of the Saints bounty scandal of 2012. Programs like this technically run afoul of NFL’s rules, even when they aren’t premised on potentially incapacitating opponents,” Florio wrote.
“It’s unlikely the NFL will do anything about it. It’s also unlikely that similar incentives aren’t commonly employed on a wink-nod basis within NFL locker rooms.”
Obviously, it worked for Brady and he got away with it.
