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Brett Favre reflects on the Saints bounty scandal that rewarded players who injured him


NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre was once the target of the New Orleans Saints’ headhunting scheme and 15 years later opened up about that experience in an X Friday thread.

In 2009, the Saints offered their players cash incentives for injuries to certain players. Favre, the team’s quarterback Minnesota Vikings at that time, was on that list.

The Vikings were considered the main obstacle in the NFC for the Saints to reach the Super Bowl that year.

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Brett Favre gets help from injury off the field. (Jerry Holt/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

The Saints beat Favre and the Vikings NFC Championship game that year, a 31-28 overtime thriller. Favre was never injured, but he took multiple hard hits and ended up with a costly interception in overtime.

Favre said he didn’t “bear a grudge” against the Saints over the scandal and wanted him to play better in the game.

“I played the game with the mindset of being ready for anything: big shots, injuries and players trying to break my head. I never made excuses for when I wasn’t successful and I played the game according to the rules. In fact . . , the loss only made me want to work harder and made me want to win next time,” Favre wrote.

“I have no ill will toward those involved in Bounty Gate. After we lost to the Saints, I was rooting for Drew Brees and Sean Payton to win the Super Bowl. Looking back 15 years later, my opinion hasn’t changed.. If I could get some of those games back and do our part, maybe we’d be celebrating winning the championship in 2010.”

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Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre runs to the sideline after a pass is intercepted by Chicago Bears’ Julius Peppers at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on December 20, 2010. (Reuters/Eric Miller)

The Saints won the Super Bowl that year against the Indianapolis Colts.

But after the scandal was revealed, the Saints received some of the harshest sanctions in NFL history. Former head coach Sean Payton has been suspended for one year without pay.

Defensive coordinator Greg Williams, identified as the mastermind of the scheme, was suspended indefinitely but later reinstated. Former general manager Mickey Loomis was suspended for the first eight games of the 2012 season, and associate head coach Joe Vitt was suspended for the first six games of that year.

Former Saints players Scott Fujita, Anthony Hargrove, Will Smith and Jonathan Vilma were suspended for their roles.

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New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton reviews the play on the sideline. (AP Photo/Bill Feig)

The Saints also had to pay a $500,000 fine and forfeit their second-round picks in the 2012 and 2013 drafts.

The team’s headhunting scheme involved as many as 27 players and at least one assistant coach, the league found in its investigation. The players even contributed to the fund.

Players were paid $1,500 for a “knockout,” when the targeted player could not return to the game, and $1,000 for an “ejection,” when the player had to be carried off the field.

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