( CNN ) -- `` Give the man his money . '' That was the demand from Jerome Brown , my teammate when I played for the Philadelphia Eagles more than 20 years ago . It was a Saturday night and we were having one of our regular special team meetings , where we 'd watch highlights from the previous week and review the big hits and plays . Jerome was calling for the $ 100 reward that a player had coming to him for an interception or forcing a fumble or , of course , the de-cleating big hit . It was 1988 and I was in the NFL that I was raised on . I dreamed about being a player in that highlight reel . In 1989 , in the midst of my second year with the Eagles , we traded kicker Luis Zendejas to the Dallas Cowboys . Several weeks later we played the Cowboys in Dallas , and the night before the game I talked with Luis and reminded him `` to keep your head on a swivel . '' He knew exactly what I was talking about . Days later , that game came to be known as the `` Bounty Bowl '' and our coach Buddy Ryan was accused of putting a bounty on his head . But it was nothing like that at all . No one player was targeted . The incentive was the big play that changed the game . The hit had to be a clean and legal hit . Cheap shots , late or illegal hits were not only disallowed , they were met with boos . The money on the back end was merely ceremonial . For players making league minimum , it became a part of their service , like a tip to a waiter . This was the NFL I grew up watching , and I was playing with guys I watched on TV as a child . It was the NFL that gave us `` Monsters of the Midway , '' the `` Purple People Eaters '' and the `` Steel Curtain . '' Bloody knuckles and vicious hits were the script by which the raw , orchestrated violence of the NFL was sold . When the revelations of the bounty that players of the New Orleans Saints players had for their opponents became public , my first thought was the rate of inflation : $ 10,000 seemed excessive -- but so too does a $ 100 million dollar contract from someone of my generation . The big money makes the big hit seem more perverse . Still , the whole thing seems rather routine to me . I must admit that when I first retired from football I did not view it as a violent game . While I had been aware of our society 's appetite for violent entertainment , the violence of the game remained inconsequential to the goal . But taking a step to the sidelines , I could now see the carnage of the game and modified my view . It 's impossible to get past the reality of the way the game has grown . Big hits , big stages , big-time players and big salaries have characterized the growth of the game and its image . And , every player 's contract is loaded with performance incentives that work to raise the level of competition . It seems to me that the coaches and players of the Saints were playing according to the model given . Listening to the indignation by the public and most especially the sports media world as they condemn the behavior of the Saints players and coaches , it 's hard not to hear some hypocrisy . To be sure , the league has presented the game over the years as a show of hard knocks , where athlete warriors wage their fight . And , young athletes , like I was in the 1970 's , grow up striving for that moment they make the highlight reel . The hits must be clean and the intent must never be to maim an opponent . However , as Tom Jackson of ESPN put it , the intent is to physically and psychologically `` damage '' a player with a hit . As someone who was often the one being hit , I understood that quite clearly . Today we are more aware of head injuries and the violent nature of football . But this game has never been sold as the `` two-hand touch '' most boys played in their youth . It 's common knowledge that football is not a `` contact sport '' but a `` collision sport . '' And , while we must do all we can to prevent injuries , we must also recognize the insatiable appetite we have for the violence -- and the subsequent reward , of admiration and dollars , we bestow on NFL players . We must also be honest about what we expect . This will not go away with admonishment from the media or sanctions from the league -- unless , of course , the media and the league stop promoting the violence and reward how the game is played when it presents it to the next generation . The tradition will not stop on a dime any more than a player can stop as he charges towards an opposing player at full speed . Every football player has heard the phrase `` reckless abandon . '' That 's the way we were raised to play . Donald McPherson is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame , a feminist and social justice educator . Follow him on Twitter , @ donmcpherson .
Don McPherson says in his early career , payouts for ` ` big players '' were common . He says the amount is far less , and no individual players were targeted . He says as a player , he did n't think of the game 's violence ; fans and players expect it . McPherson : If fans are affected by ` ` ' system , '' they should lower their lust for violence .