http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt4WUG_BTzs

Once the Peyton Manning/Indianapolis Colts saga dies down, America will resume scoffing at the New Orleans Saints and their participation in a bounty program over the past three seasons.

This reminds me of my favorite bounty hunting episode in a far less realistic landscape…professional wrestling.

Bounties were used as a gimmick throughout feuds in pro wrestling as a way to portray a heel (the bad guy) as cowardly and paranoid regarding his potential demise to a challenger.

Twenty nine years ago, NWA champion Harley Race had a young fella hot on his heels in a chase for title. Ric Flair, a popular figure throughout the Carolinas, was the number one contender to Race’s NWA title.

Flair, a former NWA champion who lost the title to Race months earlier, attempted to regain the title in rematches with the Kansas City native but came up short. However, the champion grew tired of Flair’s hard-charging tactics and decided it was time to eliminate his greatest challenge.

Race appeared on TV offering a $25,000 bounty to “any living human being” that could injure Flair and eliminate him from wrestling.

Soon after offering the bounty, Cowboy Bob Orton & Dick Slater “collected” by injuring in Flair following a bout with Race in August 1983.

Ultimately, Race’s plan failed. After staging a “retirement speech” Flair returned to the Mid-Atlantic area weeks later wielding a baseball bat to chase off Orton and Slater.

Flair eventually had the last laugh. He defeated Race for the NWA title at Starrcade ’83.

As the Saints will soon learn (just as Race did in 1983), misfortune follows those who try to eliminate the opponent through nefarious means.