That 1984 49ers team had a bountygate "Hit Club"

Ron Ferrari, a 49er, later became under FBI investigation for white-collar crimes. He is part of Kurt Eichenwald's book "The Informant," later made into a crappy movie with Matt Damon.

Anyways...

On p. 465 of the book, Eichenwald describes a FBI interview of Ron Ferrari, one of Whitacre’s salesmen and someone the FBI thought might be involved in the price-fixing. Ferrari played linebacker for the 49ers during the Joe Montana years, and the FBI questioned him about $25,000 in a safe-deposit box (thinking it might have come from price-fixing). Ferrari tells the FBI this is money from “unofficial bonuses” he received while playing football for the 49ers. He goes on to indicate that sometimes, when there were unpopular players on the other team, the coaches would pay “little bonus payments” for a “particularly vicious hit on one of those unpopular guys.” This seems exactly what the NFL bounty scandal is all about, but this is an allegation of it happening in the mid-80s, a long time before the Saints “bountygate” came out.

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