Jan. 2, 2011; Detroit, MI, USA; Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe (5) against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-US PRESSWIRE

Chris Kluwe is known for his great sense of humor, but he doesn’t joke around when it comes to issues of player safety. When Kluwe thought the NFL wasn’t doing enough to protect punters? He ripped the league via whiteboard. When he thought Kerry Meier of the Falcons took a cheap shot at his long-snapper Cullen Loeffler? He called Kerry Meier an “a**hole” and a “f***ing douchepickle.”

But those were small controversies compared to the firestorm currently raging in the wake of Bountygate. At heart, the Bountygate flap is about player safety. The NFL is constantly touting its efforts to take care of player health, particularly when it comes to head injuries, but that new image is in jeopardy thanks to the news about the Saints’ bounty system. The NFL wants us to think it’s forward-minded when it comes to protecting players, but Bountygate makes the league look as barbaric and backward as it was during the 1950s. This is a major issue for Roger Goodell who is clearly trying to clean up the game’s image with his aggressive approach to discipline.

Chris Kluwe gets all this. Appearing on the Football & French Toast podcast, the punter discussed the safety and image issues underlying the whole Bountygate controversy. “It threatens the image of the game,” Kluwe said. “When you look at an NFL game…you don’t want to think that guys are out there actively trying to hurt each other. NFL’s a violent game. We all know the risks when we step on the field. Granted, as a punter, I don’t face those risks quite as much as other people. At the same time there’s a chance a guy’s going to hit you, injuries happen, that’s part of the game, that’s why people are interested in it. But what people aren’t interested in seeing, unless they’re sadistic twisted people, is guys that are actively trying to hurt other people. That’s not part of what makes the NFL the most popular sport in America.

“As a player you don’t want to believe guys are out there trying to hurt other guys,” Kluwe added. “It’s a dangerous game and that’s without trying to hurt other people. You’re in a lot of vulnerable positions and it’s really an issue of trust. Players have to be able to trust each other that if you’ve got a guy in a vulnerable position…you have to trust that a guy’s not going to dive into your knee and end your career. Because if that starts happening teams are going to retaliate. Then all of a sudden it starts escalating and you get superstars that are done.”

Clearly Kluwe believes the bounty system is poisonous to the NFL both image-wise and in terms of the vital trust that must be maintained between the players if they’re going to come out of it all in one piece. But what would he do to assure such practices are done away with once and for all? Kluwe favors harsh punishment for the Bountygate perpetrators. Former Saints DC Gregg Williams and current player Jonathan Vilma have already admitted to their participation. Vilma in fact confessed to offering a $10,000 bounty on Kluwe’s former teammate Brett Favre before the NFC title game. Kluwe would come down hard on both those men. He told Football & French Toast, “I think that Vilma and Williams should be banned from football for life. And any of the guys that took money on a hit that injured someone should be suspended for at least a year.” Kluwe added, “You have to make a serious example out of what has gone on here.”

Strong opinions from Kluwe. I wonder what all the tough guy old school guys think of his thoughtful takes. There are plenty of people saying Bountygate is no big deal and that it’s just football. Even Brett Favre himself brushed the whole thing off, insisting he’s not “pissed” at the Saints for injuring him. But clearly there are some players who understand the many dilemmas presented by such practices. Now it falls to Roger Goodell to decide what the proper punishment is for this highly-publicized transgression. If Roger is true to his Judge Roy Bean image, Williams, Vilma and the Saints organization are going to be feeling some pain in their pocketbooks.

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A couple days ago, NFL V.P. of officiating Mike Pereira said the referees made a mistake not calling a penalty on Bobby McCray for hitting Brett Favre low on the play where Favre was injured while throwing an interception to Jonathan Vilma.  Had McCray been hit with a flag there, the Vikings may very well have driven the ball down and scored, though they would’ve had to do it without Favre, who remained sprawled on the trainers’ table until the next offensive series.

Today, the NFL officially punished McCray for that hit and another unnecessary roughness penalty against Favre, fining the defensive end $20,000.

The interesting thing about that is, the play McCray was flagged for was much cleaner than the one for which he wasn’t.  But that’s all water under the bridge now, right Purple Nation?

Um, yeah.  Maybe not.

Oh, and incidentally, McCray was not the only Saints player to receiver a fine for rough play against the Vikings.  In addition to the financial penalty levied against McCray, Jonathan Casillas and Anthony Hargrove also took $5,000 hits to their pocket books, Casillas for blasting Darius Reynaud after a fair catch signal and Hargrove for yet another hit against Favre.

Hargrove’s hit on Favre was, by the way, also clean.

Judging by Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams‘ comments about wanting to put a hurting on Peyton Manning, several more New Orleans defensive players can anticipate disciplinary action from the league about two weeks from today.  And I’m sure they’d all willingly cough up the coin in exchange for a championship.

1.  Memo to Viking fans who wish to do nothing but bash the referees:  You are making fools of yourselves.  That interference call against Ben Leber was probably a bad call but so what?  Had the Saints lost, they could’ve screamed and yelled forever about the roughing the passer call against Anthony Hargrove, or even the earlier unnecessary roughness call against Bobby McCray where he ran Brett Favre over at a point where Favre was basically a blocker.  Actually, if you add the whole game up, the Saints probably have a greater gripe against the officiating than the Vikings do.  But, in truth, neither fanbase should be focusing on the referees in the wake of that mess.  Blaming the refs is what nitwits do who are unwilling to see the reality of the situation, or simply do not have a grasp of reality.

2.  When time passes and our brains are done filtering the irrelevant from the relevant, the one play that will stick out in our memories is the Adrian Peterson fumble at the end of the second quarter after Reggie Bush handed us six points on a silver platter.  The game was 14-14 at that point, and had the Vikings sealed the deal there, they would’ve gone into the half with a 7-point lead and a huge psychological lift.  The entire dynamic of the second half would’ve been changed had the Vikings led by seven coming out of the break, because even had the Saints scored in their first possession, it would only have been a tie game, and the Vikings would’ve been much less tense and maybe some of those fumbles would not have happened.  And maybe the Saints, who I thought played very tight on offense in the second half anyway, would’ve been the ones feeling the pressure, and would’ve made the killer mistakes.  But we’ll never know now because Peterson coughed it up.  (Note:  Yes I realize that fumble was technically credited to Favre, but come on, we all know who was responsible).

3.  The Peterson defenders will point out that only two fumbles were counted against him in the scorebook and both were recovered by the Vikings.  And they’ll probably point out that the 1st (actually 2nd) fumble didn’t mean much because we immediately came back, thanks to Visanthe Shiancoe, and moved the ball down for the score which Peterson ran in himself.  So no harm, no foul on that one.  And the other fumble, at least Peterson hustled and got the ball back himself.  That 2nd (actually 3rd) fumble was the problem though, because afterward, Brad Childress had no choice but to yank Peterson from the game, which meant his presence was no longer on the field, a fact the Saints undoubtedly adjusted to.  And what happened a few plays after that fumble?  Brett Favre was picked off by Jonathan Vilma (on the same play where we thought Favre had been killed).  There’s no way of knowing for sure if Peterson being off the field really created that turnover, but the point is, we all accept that defenses over-adjust to account for Peterson, which is a large part of our passing success, meaning we are much better off with him in the game than not in the game.  But we don’t get the benefit of his presence when he keeps fumbling and needs to be benched to get his head together.

4.  The overall lack of ball security demonstrated by the Vikings in the second half was, to me, a symptom of a larger issue that reared its head more-and-more as the game progressed:  basically, that the game started getting too fast, too pressurized, too big for some of the Vikings players.  The only one who really kept his head entirely, it seemed like, was Brett Favre, at least up until the last offensive play of regulation when he went dumb.  Everyone else seemed to lose their shit.  Darius Reynaud muffed a punt, Percy Harvin fumbled, Bernard Berrian fumbled, Steve Hutchinson lost his shoe for awhile and had to be replaced by Artis Hicks, Tyrell Johnson and Cedric Griffin both missed interceptions, the kick coverage got lax, which helped the Saints get field position on a couple of occasions.  And then there was the huge gaffe, the killer gaffe, the gaffe that will haunt us forever:  the 12-men-in-the-huddle call that led directly to the Favre interception.  If ever a single moment demonstrated a team’s inability to keep its focus in the midst of pressure, that was it.  And it was inexcusable.

5.  The Vikings really should’ve gotten blown out of the water in the second half, but didn’t because, frankly, the Saints offense played almost as tight as the Vikings’.  The playcalling, I thought, got too conservative from them, and helped the Vikings defense which did a good job holding up in spite of all the turnovers by their offense.  I really don’t know why the Saints didn’t show more killer instinct on offense when the Vikings kept handing them chances.  All I know is that Leslie Frazier and Gregg Williams were the ones who came out of that game shining.  The Saints defense gave up some yards, but they punished Favre, and forced 5 turnovers.  And the Vikings – again, with help from the Saints’ inexplicably gutless playcalling – played arguably as good a game as they did vs. the Cowboys, when you look at how unimpressive the Saints’ final numbers were.

6.  The biggest question facing Viking fans today is:  How angry should we be at Brett Favre for that final interception?  If any point argues in favor of not being too angry, it’s that Favre never should’ve been put in a position to try to throw there.  All the Vikings needed was to keep running it, not lose yardage, not take a sack, and above all NOT TURN THE BALL OVER AGAIN.  But, then Chilly decided to get cute with the substitutions, and someone didn’t know they were supposed to come out of the game and…12 men in the huddle.  Of course, it’s possible Favre could’ve scrambled for a few yards there and gotten Ryan Longwell back in range.  But we’ll never know now because Favre’s first thought is always to pass and it was his first thought there.  Perhaps Favre  lost it under the pressure of the moment or perhaps that is just who Favre is.  All I know is, we would not have been in that game at all had it not been for Favre.  He kept the team together when everything seemed to be falling apart, and but for a couple of unfortunate mistakes, played as well as one could’ve expected from a man his age given the number of hits he took and the number of mistakes his teammates made around him.

7.  I joked during the game that Viking fans had to be happy about the 12 men in the huddle call, because it finally gave them a solid reason to blame Childress for the loss.  I now realize, however, that no matter what happened, Viking fans would’ve blamed Childress.  Had Favre thrown 5 interceptions, fans would’ve cried that Childress should have run the ball more.  Had Adrian Peterson fumbled 2 more times, fans would’ve screamed that Childress should’ve taken him out.  Had Chester Taylor fumbled, fans would’ve blamed Childress for not putting Adrian Peterson back in even despite the fumbles.  Had the Superdome roof collapsed, killing everyone inside, Viking fans would’ve figured out a way to blame Childress for that too.  Childress is simply despised, for a variety of reasons, some of them irrational, and would’ve been the number 1 target of fan scorn regardless of how things went down.

8.  What if…Cedric Griffin doesn’t get hurt on that kick return, putting Asher Allen on the field to commit pass interference and help the Saints keep their drive alive?  Just one more thing to torture yourself about.

9.  Bernard Berrian played like a man possessed up until that fumble.  Where was that all season?  I guess we should be grateful he decided to show up at all, but, damn man.  How about trying to earn your huge paycheck every week instead of just when the bright lights are on you?

10.  Even if Favre doesn’t return, the Vikings have a fantastic offensive nucleus.  Sidney Rice, Visanthe Shiancoe, Percy Harvin…Adrian Peterson, if he learns to hold onto the ball.  Phil Loadholt who I think could shift over to left tackle at some point.  The problems are at quarterback, center, left guard (yes, Hutchinson is a question mark, because of age and health) and left tackle unless Loadholt is the answer.  It will be an interesting off-season to say the least.

Bonus:  It’s a good thing there are no coaching jobs open, because Leslie Frazier’s stock after the last two games is higher than it will ever be again.  I’m guessing that, if the Raiders get rid of the Cable character, Al Davis will hire some weird-ass out-the-blue candidate and not even offer it to Frazier, who probably doesn’t want that job anyway.