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How should cheating in professional sports be handled?

Recently, the New Orleans Saints were heavily penalized for their defense's three-year "bounty program," which offered cash rewards for injuring players on opposing teams. (See http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7718136/sean-payton-new-orleans-saints-banned-one-year-bounties ) Was that cheating? Was the NFL's response justified?

pabr0505, 21.03.2012, 10:44
Idea status: under consideration

Comments

Jay, 21.03.2012, 13:24
Perhaps this is a separate question, but it seems relevant to me. I found myself wondering today that if in fact it can be demonstrated that specific, individual players intentionally made injury-causing hits for the purpose of receiving a "bounty", shouldn't they be legally prosecuted for assault? Most of what football players do to one another would be illegal outside of the context of the sport, so doesn't such an act become illegal once the intent to cause harm enters into the picture?

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