Troy Brown knows what it's like to participate in a "pay for performance" system.
The former New England Patriots wideout and kick returner even knows what it's like to be the money man behind a "kitty" pool.
But in an interview with the Boston Herald, Brown drew a distinction between his $100 payments for blocks on his returns for touchdowns and the bounty system the New Orleans Saints administered under defensive coordinator Gregg Williams from 2009 to 2011.
"That's just insane, because we're all in the same boat," Brown said Friday. "We all know how difficult it is to get this job, and to maintain this job, and to stay healthy, and to make a good living. The hurtin' part, I'm just having a hard time digesting that one."
Brown added: "That sounds more like 50s and 70s type football. And I'm a big fan of the New Orleans Saints.
"But as (Mike) Tyson says, 'it's ludicrous.' I just don't get that one. Why would you intentionally want to go out and hurt people that are doing the same thing you're doing. You're trying to make a living. That's the bottom line. I don't really get it. I don't know if those guys thought about that part. We're all making a living in this business. That's not the image you want to live with as players. Deliberately hurting people at their livelihood? I'm having a hard time understanding where their heads are on that one."
Former Saints safety Darren Sharper denied that players ever intentionally tried to injure opponents, in an interview with NFL.com on Friday.
"I think this is something that, from when I got in the league in 1997, has happened thousands and thousands of times over," Sharper said about "pay for performance" systems. "It's ridiculous that someone is trying to say that we made bounties on knocking guys out, when basically all it was is that when a guy gets an interception, then he might get paid. That's something that guys do amongst themselves."
