[KillerGremlin]

http://www.freep.com/article/2012030...s-Jim-Schwartz

Tennessee Titans players ran a player-organized incentive pool that coaches were aware of but didn’t contribute to when Detroit Lions coach Jim Schwartz was the team’s defensive coordinator, former players told the Tennessean.

The newspaper reported that Schwartz “handed out baseball bats or boxing gloves for big hits” while players raised the stakes with monetary rewards.

“Guys would throw out there, ‘Hey, knock this guy out, and it’s worth $1,000,’” safety Lance Schulters, who played for Tennessee in 2002-04, told the paper. “Let’s say when we played the Steelers, and Hines Ward was always trying to knock guys out. So if you knocked (him) out, there might be something in the pot, $100 or whatever, for a big hit on Hines -- a legal, big hit.”

Schwartz is not accused of contributing to nor administering a bounty program like the one that has former Titans and current St. Louis Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams in trouble with the NFL. Schwartz worked as a defensive assistant under Williams for two seasons in Tennessee.

Kyle Vanden Bosch, who played with the Titans in 2005-09, said he never saw Schwartz engage in any bounty behavior.

“No, uh-uh. Not when I was there,” Vanden Bosch said. “I was their there, I think Schwartz’s second or third year (actually his fifth) as D-coordinator, and we didn’t have that.”

Former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy, now with NBC, also told profootballtalk.com he believes the Titans had a bounty on quarterback Peyton Manning but did not offer any specifics.

Dungy, who coached the Colts in 2002-08, during Schwartz’s tenure as Titans defensive coordinator, did not return a phone call from the Free Press on Saturday.

The Lions also declined to comment about Dungy’s accusations Saturday and did not return a phone call this morning.

Lions safety Chris Harris, while declining to provide details, told the Free Press that player-run pay-for-performance programs are common in the NFL.

“It goes on all around the league. I think it does,” he said. “I don’t know if every team does it, but I think it’s more common than most (believe).”

Harris said Lions players did not offer bounties last year, and defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, speaking before a NASCAR race in Arizona via the Charlotte Observer, said Lions coaches and players "wouldn't allow that" to happen.

Vanden Bosch said the team was concerned about cleaning up its image, not setting bounties.

“At a certain point last year, we were doing everything we could to shed the dirty perception, so I don’t think us putting bounties on other teams or quarterbacks would help,” Vanden Bosch said.

Former Lions safety Ron Rice said he saw player-run incentive programs during his tenure with the team in 1995-2001.

“You go out and say, ‘If you get an interception in this game,’ or ‘I got $100 that I’ll get the interception,’” Rice said. “Or if you got a kick returner, he’ll pay the whole return team for every touchdown that he scores. Things like that. But that’s all internal things amongst players. Coaches were never involved in it.”

Rice said offering bounties to injure players is isolated and never was a part of the programs he saw.

“We would never put a bounty on a guy’s head to injure a guy or take a guy off the field on a stretcher or anything like that,” Rice said. “It was moreso money on an interception, money on a big play, making a stop or something like that. But for a team to go out and intentionally focus on hurting a player is totally unacceptable because, again, it goes beyond a game. This is your job, and this is your career and a lot of people, it’s your livelihood, and this is how people earn their living, so it’s unacceptable.”

Harris said most players are aware that player-run incentive pools violate league rules about the salary cap because "the NFL posts a memo on it every year." But he said they've been ingrained in the NFL culture so long, even recent reports might not be enough to stop them.

"I don't know," Harris said. "How can you catch them?"

Williams could face a fine and lengthy suspension after an NFL investigation showed he administered and contributed to a bounty program with the New Orleans Saints in 2009-11. The team also could lose draft picks.

An NFL spokesperson declined comment about the Titans allegations.