NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre was once a target of a bounty hunting scheme by the New Orleans Saints and opened up 15 years later about that experience in a thread on X on Friday.
In 2009, the Saints offered cash incentives to their players for injuring certain players. Favre, quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings at the time, was on that list.
The Vikings were considered the NFC’s first hurdle for the Saints to reach the Super Bowl that year.
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Brett Favre is helped off the field after being injured. (Jerry Holt/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
The Saints beat Favre and the Vikings in the NFC championship game that year, a 31-28 overtime thriller. Favre was never injured, but he took several hits and ended up throwing a costly interception in overtime.
Favre said he holds no “bad will” to the Saints for the scandal and wishes he had played better in the game.
“I played the match with the mindset to be prepared for anything: big hits, injuries and players trying to break my head. I never made excuses for the times when I failed and played the game within the ruleset, losing made me want to work harder and fueled my drive to win next time,” Favre wrote.
“I have no ill will towards the people involved in Bounty Gate. After losing to the Saints, I rooted for Drew Brees and Sean Payton to win the Super Bowl. Looking back 15 years later, my opinion hasn’t changed.
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Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre walks to the sideline after throwing a pass that was intercepted by the 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 once the scandal was discovered, the Saints received some of the toughest penalties in NFL history. Former head coach Sean Payton was suspended for one year without pay.
Defensive coordinator Greg Williams, identified as the mastermind of the plan, was suspended indefinitely but was later reinstated. Former general manager Mickey Loomis was suspended for the first eight games of the 2012 season, and assistant head coach Joe Vitt was suspended for the first six games of this year.
Former Saints players Scott Fujita, Anthony Hargrove, Will Smith and Jonathan Vilma were all suspended for their roles.
New Orleans head coach Sean Payton reviews plays from the sidelines. (AP Photo/Bill Feig)
The Saints also had to pay a $500,000 fine and lose their second-round picks in the 2012 and 2013 drafts
The team’s bounty hunting plan involved as many as 27 players and at least one assistant coach, the league found in its investigation. Players even contributed to a cash pool.
Players were paid $1,500 for a “knockout”, when a targeted player was unable to return to the game, and $1,000 for a “basket”, when a player had to be carried off the field.
