Well, this escalated quickly.

When the Broncos played the Steelers in the regular season, Pittsburgh center Cody Wallace launched at Denver safety David Bruton head first. Wallace was later fined $23,152 for it.

"That's just what [the #Steelers] do. They're dirty, and he left his feet trying to take me out." – @D_Brut30 https://t.co/QNY9pozzFG — Denver Broncos (@Broncos) December 22, 2015

Earlier this week, Broncos players said that they haven’t forgotten the play.

“That was some B.S. 72, we already know, we got his number,” safety Darian Stewart told USA TODAY‘s Lindsay Jones on Monday. To the Denver Post‘s Nicki Jhabvala, Stewart added that “it’s not going to be anything as far as cheap or anything.

“We’re going to get him between the lines, between the whistles. He’s going to be sore after the game, that’s how I see it. He come out on a screen, he better not come at 2-6. I’m cutting him.”

Are those threats from Stewart? You can be the judge of that. The key is, nothing Stewart said he plans to do is illegal—he emphasized that it would be a physical game that would leave Wallace “sore.”

Stewart’s remarks were interpreted Pittsburgh guard Ramon Foster as “bounty” comments.

Ramon Foster said what Denver safety Stewart said about Wallace is a bounty. — Mark Kaboly (@MarkKaboly_Trib) January 13, 2016

That’s a big accusation, and it’s baseless.

From 2009-11, the Saints had a bounty operation—players were rewarded for hard hits and for deliberately injuring opponents—and when the bounty scandal was discovered, New Orleans was punished severely.

Coach Sean Payton was suspended for the entire 2012 season, several other coaches were suspended for shorter periods, the team was fined $500,000, and a pair of the Saints’ second round draft picks were forfeited by the league.

Intentionally planning to injure a player is a serious offense, and to accuse someone of doing it is just as serious. Stewart may have been unwise to say that Denver plans to make Wallace sore, but for Foster to suggest that Denver has a bounty on a player—without any proof—is perhaps an even more serious offense.

There’s no reason to believe that Denver’s defense has a bounty on Wallace. They’ll hit him—you can count on that—but they made no claims of being rewarded for potentially injuring him.