Great moments in bounty hunting

I'm so old I remember watching the game in which this happened.

Former New Orleans Saints kicker Morten Andersen, a legend with the black-and-gold and the NFL's all-time leading scorer, says he was once the victim of a bounty hit by an opponent in 1987.

The incident, now under investigation by CNN, occured in 1987 when the Saints were playing the Houston Oilers in the Superdome on Dec. 13, 1987. Andersen said that on the opening kickoff, when he was unguarded, he took a vicious, blind-side shot from Oilers special team player Walter Johnson.

The hit was controversial at the time. It was discussed all week in the local media afterward and it was openly speculated that there had been a "bounty" involved. There was no league investigation, however, and no one suggested that the Oilers be docked draft choices or anything like that. Not even after this came out.

Two years later, however, when Johnson became a Saint, Andersen said he asked about the play.

"I said, 'why did you do that?' and he said because he was told to," Andersen said. "Walter told me they paid him $1,000 for that hit."

Again. All of this was common knowledge at the time. It was part of Oilers (later Falcons) coach Jerry Glanville's "Man-in-black" image he enjoyed cultivating. No point in being shocked about it now. And, of course, no point pretending what the Saints are accused of is anything new.