'Sissies' and Bounties, and Kurt Warner Addresses Critics LaVar Arrington, the former Redskin linebacker, continued the discussion about the potential dangers of youth football on Tuesday. Perhaps he didn't elevate the discussion, but he continued it. Via Michael David Smith, at ProFootballTalk.com: "To me, it's sissification, and I think that's the only way to put it," Arrington said. I will not go through my life scared and I don't want my children to go through life scared. I started playing football when I was 8 years old and I would never not want to give that opportunity to my children. If you reach the N.F.L. and are still a little scared, there's always cash bounties. The former star wide receiver Cris Carter said on a radio show that he put bounties on players like Bill Romanowski to protect himself and teammates. Via Mike Florio, at ProFootballTalk.com: "I'm guilty of it," Carter said. It's the first time I've ever admitted it. But I put a bounty on guys before. I put bounties on guys. And the guys tried to take me out, a guy tried to take a cheap shot on me, I put a bounty on him, right now. A money bounty? Mark Schlereth asked. "Absolutely," Carter said. Protect me. . . . Protect me from him. . . . Especially if he's playing a different position where I can't protect myself," Carter said. "I'd tell one of them guards, "Hey man, this dude is after me, man. Bill Romanowski. He told me he's gonna knock me out before the game, in warmups. I'm gonna end your career, Carter. I put a little change on his head before the game. Protect myself, protect my family. That's the league that I grew up in. Kurt Warner, who started much of the recent debate about youth football when he said he preferred that his sons not play, explained his position in greater depth at his Web site. Warner had been called ungrateful and uneducated, among other things, by critics. On the final note that was expressed by Amani Toomer & Merrill Hoge (and maybe countless others) that my saying I would rather my kids not play was "throwing the NFL under the bus," I fully disagree. I don't know why it is so hard for people to understand how I can BOTH love the game and be grateful for what it did for me and at the same time have concern for my kids in regards to playing it. Why does it have to be one or the other? I love the X's and O's of the game. I love the strategy of the game of football. I love the competitiveness of playing the greatest team sport in the world, where 11 guys must come together at the same time for the team to have success. I love the chess match within each game, the moves and countermoves and the pressure filled responses that dictate who will be the victor. I love the discipline and hard work that is required to succeed in any sport, especially the game of football. Yet, at the same time I am fully aware of the one aspect that I do not love... the violence. Extra point Another football player has died young, this time of cancer: Receiver Stacy Robinson, who helped the Giants win their first two Super Bowls, was 50.