Former NFL tackle Brad Culpepper: We were coached on how to injure opponents

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The burgeoning BountyGate scandal involving the New Orleans Saints, head coach Sean Payton and former defensive coordinator Greg Williams is no surprise to former Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle Brad Culpepper.

I got a fascinating look into the mentality and brutality of NFL players during a conversation with Culpepper recently on our radio show. Culpepper, a former Florida Gators defensive tackle, said that when he broke into the league with the Minnesota Vikings in 1992, he and his defensive teammates were instructed by coaches on the most effective way to injure opposing quarterbacks and knock them out of games.

“We practiced techniques to injure players,” Culpepper said. “We would dive on a mat and aim for the knee portion of a pad like it was the quarterback, and we would practice going at that and trying to bust the quarterback’s knee. You knock the quarterback out, you win the game.”

Culpepper said there was another technique they practiced to try and injure quarterbacks during sacks. “A quarterback … if you pull on their arm and land on their shoulder, you can dislocate (the shoulder) and then they’re out. We used to practice that, too.”

He also said that back in the early 1990s – before there was a rule against it – when a quarterback threw an interception, defenders immediately went into kill-the-QB mode.

“We practiced on interceptions — we didn’t care where the ball was — we were making a bee-line to wherever the quarterback was. The play could be 60 yards down on the other side (of the field) and we were going to knock the quarterback out of the game by acting like we were blocking him, which was legal at the time.”

Culpepper, a 10th-round pick by the Vikings in ‘92, said the mentality of players is to do anything and everything possible to stay in the league. Although he was never paid a bounty to injure another player, he said he didn’t need one.

“I would have done anything to gain favor with the coaches or my teammates,” Culpepper said. “If they wanted me to go knock somebody out, I would have done it; I would have done it for free. You didn’t have to put a bounty on it. That’s the mindset. You’re a defensive tackle. You want to go kill somebody. … Lay people don’t understand that.”

After listening to Culpepper describe the psyche of pro players and coaches, you’d be foolish to think the Saints are the only team guilty of intentionally trying to injure opponents.

Welcome to the NFL (Notoriously Flagrant Licks).

If you want to listen to our entire interview with Culpepper, click here.