Perhaps taking a page from a National Football League playbook, a California Pop Warner youth football team has been accused of putting bounties on opposition players as a reward for knocking them out of games.

Tustin Red Cobras coach Darren Crawford and association President Pat Galentine were suspended last week by the Pop Warner national office while investigators look into allegations that first surfaced in the pages of the Orange County Register. The newspaper said the bounty rewards were confirmed by a former assistant coach, at least three players and a parent.

Four NFL players, three coaches and a general manager were suspended by league Commissioner Roger Goodell before this football season for allegedly participating in a bounty program while members of the New Orleans Saints from 2009-11. The player suspensions were overturned for technical reasons two weeks ago by a league appeals panel and the commissioner is expected to make another ruling on the matter soon that incorporates the panel’s concerns.

The Pop Warner incidents allegedly occurred last year during the Red Cobras’ undefeated regular season. Two coaches were said to have offered money to players for sufficiently violent hits on designated opponents in games against Yorba Linda, Santa Margarita and San Bernardino. Red Cobra players are 10 and 11 years old.

Then-assistant coach John Zanelli and two other players said Crawford first told the team he would pay for big hits during a football practice on October 24, 2011. Zanelli said he told Crawford the bounties were a bad idea. “We were like, ‘OK! We're going to go hit them! Wow!’ ” one player told the Register. A second player said, “When we were after practice, getting our gear off, we were guessing who was going to get the money.”

Zanelli and one of the players say they saw Crawford give money to a player. All the coaches who worked with Zanelli have denied there were bounties.

The bounty allegations didn’t surface until after Zanelli and the Tustin Pop Warner organization bumped heads over his attempt to form a new Pop Warner team, with parents of 15 other boys, at the end of last season. Eventually, they went to another league.

The bounty accusations were taken to the Orange Empire Conference, which oversees regional Pop Warner, and its investigation turned up no evidence of a bounty program. But last Thursday, National Pop Warner announced it will send an independent investigator to look into the matter.   

–Ken Broder

To Learn More:

Tustin Pop Warner Charges Go Beyond Bounties (by Keith Sharon, Orange County Register)

“Bounties” Split Tustin Pop Warner Club (by Keith Sharon and Frank Mickadeit, Orange County Register)

Bounty Players’ Bans Overturned (ESPN)