Ex-Viking Artis Hicks denies saying team had bounty program

Former Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Artis Hicks denied telling an author that the team ran a bounty program involving coaches in 2008 and '09.

"I never told him any specifics. I never named names," Hicks told the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Sunday night, adding that no coach was ever involved in conversations about injuring players during his 11-year career spent with five different teams.

Hicks' original quotes were published by author Jeff Pearlman in a new book about Brett Favre titled, "Gunslinger." In the book, Hicks was quoted as saying that coaches would "start a pot and all the veterans put in an extra $100, $200, and if you hurt someone special, you get the money."

The Vikings, former coach Brad Childress and some players who were on the team at that time all denied those allegations.

The NFL declined comment on whether it would investigate the claims.

Hicks told the Star Tribune that dinners or small pots of money were exchanged between players for injuring opponents -- often when a player felt like someone dove at his knees or tried to hurt him. But he insisted, "Coaches didn't know about things like that. ... A lot of it happens within the locker room."

"Only thing I told him as far as specifics was I had been part of a meeting where players were amongst ourselves as part of a unit," Hicks told the Star Tribune. "We kind of felt like the last time we played the team, they kind of did some dirty things to our running back or quarterback. When we played them again later in the year it was, 'Hey, when you get a chance to get this guy, dinner is on me.' That was as detailed as I got. Again, it was never any specifics on what team I was with or anything like that."

When asked if that meeting took place when he was a member of the Vikings, Hicks said, "It didn't."

Hicks, who spent time with the Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins, said he had no problems with Pearlman for writing what he did.

"[Pearlman] felt the need to interpret that how he wanted, and I have no problem with it," Hicks told the Star Tribune. "He's trying to sell books. I hope he sells as many as he can. It's not going to hurt me, it's not going to hurt the Vikings, and it's not going to hurt the NFL. This is seven years old, man. More power to him."

The New Orleans Saints were dealt unprecedented punishments in 2012, including season-long suspensions for head coach Sean Payton and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, when the NFL found that the Saints ran a program that included incentive payments for opposing players being injured.

Since that time, there have been other reports of players claiming they were involved in similar injury-incentive programs, most prominently from several former members of the Redskins when they played under Williams.

However, the NFL said it found no evidence of wrongdoing following investigations into both the Redskins and the Buffalo Bills, where Williams previously coached.