FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — He has coached for 36 consecutive seasons and has seen everything in football, and heard everything –including talk of bounties on the head of Peyton Manning.
“There have been people that have said that, that someone would come from another team, which I’m not gonna talk about –that’s inappropriate,” Colts senior offensive line coach Howard Mudd told The Post yesterday. “I know there has been in one case, and that may be a team that we’re pretty spirited about anyway — nothing needs to be said about that. If that’s someone’s style, then let it be. I’ll put my money on the competitive nature of the people that I coach. That shouldn’t be what fires you up.”
Mudd, coaching his last game Sunday, was asked if it was just one team over the years.
PHOTOS: THE FACES OF PEYTON MANNING
“No, it’s happened more than once,” he said, “and there have been other people that have said, ‘Well, I’ve heard that they have a bounty on Peyton.’ I’m not sure you’re supposed to have rewards like that. . . . You’re not supposed to. But I’m sure it’s done. . . . If that’s what it takes to get your guys to go, then go for it.”
Jimmy Johnson accused Buddy Ryan of putting a $500 bounty on Troy Aikman back in 1989. The NFL last year looked into radio comments by Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs that there was a bounty on Hines Ward and Rashard Mendenhall.
Could there be an unspoken Super Bowl bounty — financial or otherwise — on Manning?
If Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is telling the world that he is desperately seeking some “remember me” shots on Manning, what might he be telling his players in private? How might his players interpret the threat?
Manning (10 regular-season sacks) is the last man and the best man standing between the Saints and them celebrating a fairytale season by hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.
Might anyone fantasize himself a hero for knocking the living legend who has missed one play in 12 years because of injury out of the Super Bowl?
REMEMBER ME!
“It’s not the first time that we’ve heard a coach or a player say that,” Colts left tackle Charlie Johnson said. “We’ve heard that a couple of teams set a bounty out on Peyton Manning. So it’s not the first time we dealt with it.”
Who talked about a bounty?
“I don’t know. . . . You just hear different things,” Johnson said.
You think some teams do that?
“Who knows? Maybe, maybe not,” he said. “We don’t need any extra motivation to keep him on his feet.”
The possibility of a renegade bounty hunter on the loose in Super Bowl XLIV does not cause Mudd or Manning, who has pooh poohed Williams’ remarks, or his minions to lose any sleep.
REMEMBER ME!
“I’m pretty sure that most coordinators are telling their teams that every week that are facing us . . . they want to try to take Peyton out of the game, because without him, we’re not gonna function as well clearly,” right tackle Ryan Diem said. “The fact that he made it public was a little bold of a statement for him, but I think it’s our job is just to protect Peyton and to keep him clean. And if we can’t, we’re gonna struggle, and if we can, we’re gonna be pretty successful.”
Bounty or not, Manning’s wall has to keep Will Smith, who led the Saints with 13 regular-season sacks, and his blitzing buddies off Manning. New Orleans, which had 35 sacks in the regular season — good for 13th in the NFL — sacked Kurt Warner just once and didn’t sack Brett Favre at all, but their 16 hits on the Vikings’ quarterback certainly took their toll.
“We understand our role is to keep him standing upright, and we do our best to do that,” center Jeff Saturday said.
“It’s a big responsibility that falls on us, but we take a lot of pride in keeping him clean and just letting him do his thing, ’cause the more yards he can pile up, it’s gonna turn into wins for us,” Diem said.
Diem said he has heard teams have put bounties on Manning’s head.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that that’s happened. . . . What the details are of it, who knows?” Diem said. “It’s all hearsay. I think teams are always shooting to eliminate him.
“These threats, or bounties, or whatever you want to call ’em, they don’t really affect me at all. I don’t take it personally. I’m sure every defensive player is trying to take the quarterback out of the game.”
So if you were talking to Gregg Williams, what would you tell him?
“Bring all your blitzes,” Diem said with a chuckle, “and we’ll see what happens.”
Could the Saints have a bounty on Peyton Manning?
“I don’t think they have a bounty on Peyton any more than anyone else,” right guard Kyle DeVan said.
Super Sunday for the Colts: Mute on the Bounty.