Did Williams' bounties lead to Manning's neck problems?

By Rich Tandler

Was a hit on Peyton Manning delivered by Andre Carter and Phillip Daniels of the Redskins the beginning of the end of Manning’s time as an Indianapolis Colt?

Tony Dungy thinks it might have been.

And was that hit inspired by a bounty program established and run by then-defensive coordinator Gregg Williams?

We don’t know.

The hit came in an October 2006 game at Lucas Oil Stadium. Carter hit Manning low and then Daniels got him high, tearing the quarterback’s helmet off in the process. No flag was thrown, although Daniels did get fined $5,000 for the hit.

"The guy wouldn't let go of my helmet," Manning said after the game. "I looked into my helmet to see if my head was in there."

His head was still attached to his shoulders but maybe things weren’t quite right. He finished the game just fine as he threw for 342 yards passing with four touchdowns and the Colts went on to win the Super Bowl. But Dungy said that they had to cut back on his throws in practice. “I'm not putting two plus two together. I just figure he's getting older and he needs some time off, he's made enough throws,” Dungy said during a Sunday night football preview on Sept. 11 of last year after Manning missed a game for the fist time in his career.

“But now, as I look back on it, there's no doubt in my mind that this was the start of his neck problems.”

Certainly the hit on Manning was rough and Dungy’s theory connecting the 2006 hit to Manning’s neck problems seems plausible. But it seems to be a leap to connect the dots to making Williams’ 2006 bounty system responsible for Manning missing the 2011 season.

The hit was not anything that you don’t see almost every Sunday around the NFL. Carter and Daniels were both on contracts that paid them millions of dollars a year to sack the quarterback. It’s a little bit of a stretch to suggest that a few hundred bucks or even a few thousand would push either player to intentionally injure another player.

That doesn’t mean that bounties are an acceptable practice. But saying that Williams’ bounties led to Manning missing the 2011 season and being in jeopardy of getting cut by the Colts is a classic case of assuming a causal relationship. There were bounties for hits. A hit hurt Manning. Therefore the bounties hurt Manning. That might raise suspicion but it’s hardly proof.

That won’t prevent some from adding up two and two and getting five.  

You can reach Rich Tandler by email at RTandlerCSN@comcast.net and follow him on Twitter @Rich_Tandler. 

Comments

[JTKirkJr]

This is dumb logic to say that "It’s a little bit of a stretch to suggest that a few hundred bucks or even a few thousand would push either player to intentionally injure another player". If bounties didn't entice players to purposely injure, then why do they exist in the first place? The fact is that any player would be motivate by money. Look at illegal hits Favre took when Minnesota played New Orleans. You can't tell me that it didn't contribute to the severe ankle sprang that ultimately ended his career which there was not one flag thrown.

The real point should have been why didn't the league investigate the Manning incident? They could have fleshed out this bounty system much earlier at Washington and they wouldn't have this embarrassment with the Super Bowl Champions Cheating. Both the league and Joe Gibbs turned a blind eye to what was happening under their noses. Like Spy-gate it took several years and Super-bowl trophies before they got on top of it. Pretty damn sad.

[Rich Tandler]

Perhaps the hit wasn't investigated because it was not all that unusual, the kind of hit that happens on a regular basis every Sunday. Perhaps if Manning had gotten rid of the ball instead of hanging on to try to make a play he never would have been hit.

Thanks for your comment and if you want to continue to act shocked, shocked that there were bounties going on in the NFL, feel free. Personally, I'm not into making mountains out of molehills.

[JTKirkJr]

So you are blaming the victim here? It's really Manning's fault for not getting rid of the ball? It's really Manning's fault for being on the field that day too. He really picked the wrong profession. If he was a brick layer he wouldn't got hit and a neck injury. Rich, you have more sense than this.

How did you get the sense that I was shocked? I'm totally not shocked at all. Remember the body bag game? Buddy Ryan ran this stuff for years and that's one of the reason why the NFL made it illegal!! It's just a coincidence that his protoge continues in this fine tradition.

[JTKirkJr]

Also, a simple phone call from the league to Daniels and Carter would have sufficed. It doesn't take much to do their job here.