Simply put, Gregg Williams should never coach again, whether it be NFL, CFL, Arena Football League, College, CIS, Lingerie Football League, he should be permanently banned from all leagues.
If anyone hasn’t listened to the tape that emerged on Thursday of Williams, the former New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator, stop reading this, and go look it up on youtube. Here I will even give you a link to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhnn9kbqQUA. Now that you’re listening to it or have listened to it, Greg Williams has no place in the NFL or any football league to be a coach after what I heard. It is incredibly damning, surely, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell heard it prior to indefinitely suspending Williams for his role in the Saints’ bounty program. Regardless, now Goodell will have the chance of removing the “in’ from indefinitely and suspend Williams definitely. Permanently. Forever.
There is no place in the game for Williams. There is no place in the game for him to purposely target the “outside ACL” of any player. There is no place in the game for specifically targeting the head of an opposing player with a CONCUSSION history (imagine if this happened in the NHL?). There is no place in the game for trying to “clip” another player’s ankles. Yes, I understand football is violent sports by nature, we all know this. I am a Football Referee myself, so don’t worry, I know! Bad things happen at the bottom of piles. Eyes get poked, Players get hurt, it happens. Big hits will always be a part of the game, no matter how hard Goodell tries to legislate against them (just like fighting in hockey).
The NFL isn’t flag football, nor should it be. But there has to be a line. There is play, and then there is dirty, disgusting, deplorable play, that is not needed in the game! Gregg Williams crossed that, and took it to an all new level. It was evident from the tape (Link above), first obtained by Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports, of Williams speech to the Saints defenders prior to their Clash in January in San Fran. Football coaches always try to be motivating before games, especially before playoff games, and try to motivate the team to win, and that’s where this speech could’ve been taken out of context to some people that Williams gave to the D before their game against the 49ers. But this jumped way past coach-speak and the typical go-get-‘em rhetoric speeches that are given.
According to documentary filmmaker Sean Pamphilon, who taped Williams’s speech presumably with the coach’s knowledge and consent, Williams rubbed his thumb and two fingers together when talking about hurting Alex Smith. He wasn’t only playing football, he was playing Money ball, and he was paying someone to hurt him. This after being told to stop the bounties. This despite knowing the league was on to the practice. It went beyond arrogance. It was stupid and reckless and the epitome of hubris. Gregg Williams wasn’t going to stop, but now he has too.
It is no wonder Williams, unlike Saints head coach Sean Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis and assistant head coach Joe Vitt, did not appeal Goodell’s sanctions. For the first time in his career, he has no defense; he has no plausible explanation for his actions. What Williams did was wrong, he knows it, and he’s going bye bye! Listen to what he said about 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree, like how can you say this is alright? He’s targeting a certain region on the body that could end his CAREER. How about what he said about the other receiver, Kyle Williams who has CONCUSSION problems? He was telling his defense to target the HEAD.
More importantly listen to Williams’ inflection, his enunciation. It isn’t passion brewing inside him. It is nauseating.
Telling your defense, as Williams did, to “kill the head, the body will die,” is one thing. Telling your defense to hit Alex Smith “right there” on the chin and then saying “ Remember me, I got the first one, I got the first one, go get it. Go lay that mother—— out,” is something else
Even in football, there is a line, Williams crossed it. He should never and I mean NEVER be allowed to cross it again.
That’s all for now folks, I hope you enjoyed this blog, and to all football coaches out there, get a clue! Follow me on twitter @kevincawthra! Until next time!
YOU STAY CLASSY VANCOUVER!
Follow Channels and Categories