In USA Today
 

I am still haunted by the crushing, brutal blows that were taken by quarterbacks Brett Favre and Kurt Warner during their teams' playoff losses in 2010. That was the season of the so-called feel-good story when the Saints won it all.

It certainly wasn't a feel-good story to fans of the Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals. We saw our quarterbacks barely able to limp off the field because of the damage inflicted by the Saints. The replays of some of those brutal hits are still sickening to watch.

The Saints' only Super Bowl victory will forever be tainted by the dirty, underhanded tactics they used to win. There is no sportsmanship or honor in winning a game when it encourages — even rewards — violence and injuries. The violence, if allowed to continue unchecked, eventually would alienate many fans such as myself.

Also, resounding boos to NBA analyst Charles Barkley, who said he didn't have as much a problem with the bounties as with the person who blew the whistle on the practice. This kind of win-at-all-costs mind-set should have no place in professional sports.

Jan Lueken; Bemidji, Minn.

Letters: NFL rightly cracks down on bounties

Shocking!

This is the first time that I have heard that someone in Minn has an excuse for losing.

The refs didn't think they were dirty hits, we were playing hard hitting football, ray Lewis will tell you first hand anytime your defense dominates you take on a bad rep as being a dirty team because others can't handle it

In contrast to what the article says, I LOVE WATCHING THE HITS FROM 2009

Grow a sack, Jan.

"haunted by the crushing, brutal blows" ...

Are they even supposed to have those in football? Crushing, brutal... really?

Hyperbole ...

LMFAO!! What a tool!! Give me a break!! There was no flags, no penalties. Another journalist jumping on the hate wagon. The only thing I'm haunted by is these stupid douchenozzles woriting stories in attempt to swing the general public into believing that our superbowl run was BS. The most irritating thing about this is all the press its getting.

Careful who you're calling "journalist" there bud. LOL

I still have the Cards and Viqueens games on MY DVR and I love going back and watching our defense make CLEAN and sound hits/tackles. I can only imagine our defense next year when we will have guys who can actually make big hits. Better yet,more guys who can make big hits.

I got the whole series on my DVR and will never delete them. yeah it's nice to go back to every now and then...

Jan, please get off your high horse and get off this board. I am SO sick of people like you that continue to berate the Saints with your mightier than thou attitude. What about the helmet to helmet hit on Pierre Thomas during the 49er playoff game? Did that sicken you too? You haunted by that one too?

What dirty hits on Warner?? He himself said that they were clean hits. Sure, there were one or two questionable hits on Favre... But let me ask this: How many times did AP fumble? Did the Viqueens get penalized for 12 men in the huddle at a crucial point in the game? Did Favre throw a stupid pass while scrambling when he clearly could have run for a few yards and slid?? Did their defense step up and keep us out of field goal range in OT? What a joke.

Vicious yes..... Clean YES..... sorry if we kicked your @sses.... no guess i'm not sorry but we did..... Neither Warner nor Favre complained.... in fact Favre said "Thats football".....

you have officials to call the game and flags were not thrown.... you got a ***** its with them but if you watch the videos without a dress on you will agree they were clean....

My hope is that we don't change our style... tough but within the rules... and let Goodall's henchmen throw all the flags they want

Again with the "tainted"? I told myself I wasn't going to pay attention to the BS anymore, but you have to just drag me back in ... don't you Jan?

Haunted? Really? Like 'nightmare' haunted or do you see ghostly appendages reenacting those brutal hits throughout your day? Is it so sickening you barf?

Newsflash, girlfriend ... football is a 'violent' sport, 'checking' the violence only leads to the eventual demise of the sport ... feel free to 'alienate' yourself, and take the other fans 'such as yourself' with you.

So they boo-ed Sir Charles, eh? You know, I was never a big Barkley fan to begin with, but after reading your spiel, I'm kinda' warming up to the big lug.

'Win-at-all-costs' mindset should have no place in professional sports? My dear, the whole point of professional sports is to 'Win-at-all-costs'. Without that mindset, it's just 'amatuer' sports, get it?

Bemidji? For crissake, I've been to Bemidji ... shouldn't you be ice-fishing or something? Or do the brutal hits haunt you out there too?

And I thought I was dramatic ... geez!

*Disclaimer: This post is for entertainment purposes only and is in no way intended to condone the use of bounties and/or otherwise insult the great State of Minnesota, the city of Bemidji, it's citizens, the Minnesota Vikings organization, it's fans, nor does it seek to misrepresent or slander the sport of ice-fishing. No NFL athletes were harmed in the making of this post.

"The Saints' only Super Bowl victory will forever be tainted "

Oh man I needed a good laugh. The Saints only Super Bowl victory, as opposed to the Vikings' multiple Super Bowl victories? Oh snap! I didn't just go there did I?

This poor guy probably spent his whole high school football career getting his jock pulled over his head while getting a swirlie.

What would he know of taint, anyway? probably never seen one.

The closest to haunted for me are the lives lost at war.

I expect big hits on the football field. If I didn't like it, I would not watch the game. In this twisted universe, this Jan Lueken is a lover of Ultimate Fighting Championship - oh until her local champion loses. Maybe she mistook the Super Bowl for a Curling competition.

Sorry! but to us OUR super bowl VICTORY will never be tainted. And we are the only ones who matter. There will always be jealousy from the Vikings fans. On the other hand we haven't heard anything from the Cardinal fans. Hmmm interesting. Also no one can ever take that super bowl win away from us no matter how much they complain.

Jan...

In years past, the Aints would always give Minnesota a good game, often beating them in every statistic save the scoreboard, but your Vikings with the help of some nefarious gamemanship or biased refs would somehow deliver victory to the Vikes over the Saints, but for one reason - the Vikes wanted it more...

Forty+ years we endured an embarrassing effort to win and advance...

Well, we took the field and gave all of your same hard-nosed, winner takes all, leave-it-on-the-field gamemanship back and stuffed it up your nose...

So, I have but one question you hypocritical, flaccid crybaby -

How's it working out for you now?

Take your weak@$$ chiott, geaux dig an ice hole and cool your head in it...

Oh, and when you lose your franchise because you don't want to build a stadium with a real roof, well, we won't miss ya one bit...

Brett Favere and Kurt Warner are P**sies

I've just decided to stop getting my football news from PFT because I'm tired of the daily ASSAULT by Mike Florio. I used to post there often. No longer. I suggest others do the same. He's been celebrating his 'clicks' for these unsupported stories. Well, he's not getting my clicks any more.

I've been reading you guys for quite some time, but now I'm going to weigh in every once in a while because...well...you're my peeps.

I'm pretty dang sick of these MN blow brains still whining about a 2 year old loss. I always wonder if they really do believe that a tough but ego maniacal Farve would/COULD deliver a SB win? Do they BELIEVE that those hits came from a Saints D who were motivated by a few hundred bucks or a ring?

Their level of idiocracy is astounding.

no flag = no foul = no harm

Hey Jan # @$$wipe, you may wanna go and look at our playoff records since that SB, it'll show we have had our fair share of having our hats handed to us. Those days were our days at handing out the @sswhupping instead of recieving them no more, no less. If you feeling wronged go look at Saints vs Seattle,or Saints vs 49ers. As a Saints I personally waited 31years at that point for just the SB appearance, so you can taint that b*T#% all you want I got some CLR in the trunk that will clean her up right pretty.

ViQueens ya LOST, face it, Ya LOST

You are so right.:p

If those hits are haunting, they better not watch old clips of the Dome Patrol!!!