Well, gents, it's rare that I get on a soap-box, but this issue deserves one.
The so-called "cart-off" scandal that has made waves with the New Orleans Saints, i.e. paying defensive players bonuses to deliberately injure opposing players (to the point of "carting them off" in a stretcher) is nothing less than scandalous and disgusting. Football is already a contact sport with a certain degree of violence, and injuries, unfortunately, are part of the game. However, encouraging players to go headhunting and potentially creating season- or career-ending injuries is absolutely intolerable. The penalties handed out by Roger Goddell are fully justified. I may have been inclined to suspend the Saints from the 2012-13 season altogether, along with hefty fines for those directly involved.
I stopped watching the NHL for exactly the same reason many years ago, although many NHL proponents still insist that fighting is part of the game - it most certainly is not in Europe! "Intent" to injure would be considered a crime in a court of law. This would have to be proven, of course. However, according to Roger Goddell, there was proof of such a policy within the Saints organization, who issued an apology about this affair.
With the exception of pugilistic sports, there is no place whatsoever for fighting, cheap shots, or intent to injure in professional sport. Anyone involved in or promoting such debasing techinques, in my opinion, should be banned from their sport. i sincerely hope this never happens in the CFL.