The New Orleans Saints are starting to suffer the consequences for the practice of awarding cash "bounties" to players for game injuries inflicted on opponents during games; the NFL has already assessed penalties and the torture of Congressional hearings may be about to begin. But Gabe Feldman, an associate professor of law and director of the sports law program at Tulane University Law School who happens to have something of a Drew Brees/Peyton Manning look about him, says that criminal charges based on the bounties are unlikely:
First, U.S. courts tend to defer to league self-regulation, choosing not to interfere with on-field or on-ice discipline issues unless the conduct in question is far outside the range of what a player can expect to happen in the game. (For an extreme, hypothetical example of such conduct, see the opening scene of the film, "The Last Boy Scout," in which a football player pulls out a gun and shoots the players on the other team.) Courts generally don't want to get involved and potentially chill or impact how the game is played, as long as the league has reasonable rules in place to protect the players.
Second, it would be very difficult for a prosecutor to win a criminal case. Football is an inherently violent sport, and NFL players assume the risk of being subjected to violent conduct on the field. Battery generally is defined as the "intentional use of force against a person without that other person's consent." The problem with any criminal case is that players consent to being hit violently and repeatedly, and injuries are a regrettable but unavoidable and accepted part of the game (the fact that players are regularly placed on injured reserve is good evidence of that).
Jonathan Turley discusses the tort implications of the Saints' conduct in this post.
Lest we start to feel all American-exceptionalist and think we're the only nation struggling with line between professional sports and the law, we need only look across the pond to England. Although the English Premier League doesn't have a bounty scandal on its hands, there's enough rough stuff going on over there to prompt this recent piece from the Inner Temple Library:
The laws of the game have clearly changed in recent years to keep up with the pace of the game and protect players. Now that the laws have changed, players seem to complain when they are sent from the field of play. They would do well to firstly know the laws of the game and secondly remember that they are there to protect them. It is perhaps not just opponents that players need protecting from but themselves too.
Should things get out of hand on the field of play, the law will clearly act. Football is undoubtedly one of the most popular sports in the world. Reasons include the fast pace, skill and entertainment. Football perhaps more than any other sport has the capacity for things to happen quickly and in the heat of the moment. Many cases will end up in the "grey area" Lord Woolf referred to.
What is clear however, is that when and if necessary, the criminal law will act. When sport becomes dangerous it stops being fun; it becomes criminal. The law doesn't allow people to consent to criminal acts being perpetrated upon them outside sport. Public policy dictates that such perpetrators must be Prosecuted. They have no place in our game, let alone on the field of play armed with a pair of studs.