The NFL and the bounty case

December 11, 2012

And I know I wasn't alone.

My dad had only two rules about sports for me when I was growing up: He forbade me from playing tackle football and he wouldn't let me play catcher in baseball. Too much contact, too great a risk of hurting your brain, he'd say.

My son was well aware of my dad's rules for me. And yet, when it was time to get involved in an organized sport, he chose football. I was stymied. Was it health rebellion and him trying to assert his independence? Or was it just his love of football? Or was it both?

Maybe it doesn't matter now, because his high school football career ended last month - but his love of the game hasn't.

Today, the former NFL commissioner, acting as a kind of judge, overruled the current commish and reinstated the players from the New Orleans Saints for the so-called bounty hunting scandal. That's the scheme where coaches handed out rewards to players who hurt opposing players.

So what message does that send to the public? To the kids who love football and the parents who hold their breaths at high school games?

We'll have reaction, tonight at 11.

Also at 11, we're following developments in that execution in Midtown Manhattan, as police release surveillance video of both the suspect and the victim.

And we'll have the latest on the New York City Marathon - which has delayed registration for next year's event.

We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Meteorologist Lee Goldberg's AccuWeather forecast, and Rob Powers with the night's sports. I hope you can join Liz Cho (in for Sade) tonight at 11.

BILL RITTER

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