My research paper topic will be based on a recent football scandal, that involves an illegal 'Bounty System'. The New Orleans Saints were punished by the NFL's commissioner and governing board for paying individual players through incentive rewards. Every time a player was taken down and potentially injured, the defensive player was payed a certain amount of money after the game. However, the concept of reward based performance is how we have been taught since we were children. Does the punishment of the New Orleans Saints football team Bounty Program contradict ideals and values of what we are taught growing up? The main focus of this paper is to discuss the how children are taught from an early age that they will be rewarded based on performance, often with something appealing (e.g. food, money). So how is it different than paying professionals to reach an extra goal as well as the ones listed in their contracts?
The sources that I intend to use are from numerous fields of research. Firstly, examples of other bounty programs being found around the United States will be explained, and how they may/may not differ from what happened with the Saints. Research on children's education in sports, and how many athletes are taught the 'wrong thing' from an ethical point of view will help to explain how this paper reaches out to more than just the average NFL fan. Also, some research on motivation will help to strengthen my authority, as it provide examples of why these programs are being discovered all around the nation.
I anticipate the research on children's teaching examples being the hardest part of this paper. Many examples will be opinionated, and not necessarily fact from professionals in the field. This means I will have to research quite critically to find accurate statistics. I also see this paper uncovering and describing some ethical issues, as the bounty programs often reward players for injury-based results only. Although this topic will require a lot of research and examples, it will be exciting to uncover the psychology behind why these programs produce results so well.
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