Some disturbing news recently broke regarding the New Orleans Saints.

Apparently their defensive coordinator was paying bounties to players who either knocked out or injured members of the opposing team.

Brett Favre, who played against the Saints in the NFC Championship in 2009, has come out and said he felt there was something different about the way the defenders were gunning for him and hitting him.

This very well could have led to his injury in that game, which he played through.

It has pretty much been confirmed that these bounties were being paid. If found guilty New Orleans will likely face severe penalties.

I first found this out on a Facebook message. Most of the comment posts were critical of the Saints, but some said that this was no problem because it’s football and that’s what players do.

The people who commented the latter are quite mistaken.

Yes, football is a contact sport. I will be one of the first to say that I do not like the trend the NFL has undergone about taking a lot of the physicality out of the game.

However, player safety has become a big issue, and there is a big difference between hitting a guy as hard as you can in a form tackle and trying to injure a fellow player for money.

I love football, and I don’t want to see the professional level turn into a bunch of overgrown men running around in T-shirts and shorts with plastic yellow flags belted to their waists.

I also don’t want to see players get hurt. There must be compromise, and the NFL believes the new player safety rules — such as not hitting defenseless receivers and not hitting the quarterback high — are just that.

I’m not sure if I agree, but it’s still better than penny ante flag football for grown ups.

J.R. Tidwell is sports editor for The Franklin County Times. He can be reached at (256) 332-1881, ext. 31.