Gregg Williams issues apology/statement on "Bounty Program'
 

Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has publicly apologized, hours after the NFL announced that Williams had violated league rules by orchestrating a system of bounties during his time on the staff of the Saints.

“I want to express my sincere regret and apology to the NFL, Mr. Benson, and the New Orleans Saints fans for my participation in the ‘pay for performance’ program while I was with the Saints,” Williams said. “It was a terrible mistake, and we knew it was wrong while we were doing it. Instead of getting caught up in it, I should have stopped it. I take full responsibility for my role. I am truly sorry. I have learned a hard lesson and I guarantee that I will never participate in or allow this kind of activity to happen again.”

Gregg Williams apologizes for

Fine him 250k and call it a day.

Bilichick got fined 500k for cheating. The team got hit with 250 and if I'm not mistaken they lost some draft picks.

This was, I assume, because video taping threatened the integrity of the game, like the black sox or Pete Rose.

So is a bounty on big hits worthy of equal punishment? I say no, but of course I'm biased.

GW running his big mouth.

F you Gregg Williams. You're probably the one that snitched.

Are you sorry because it happened or are you sorry you got caught? I vote the latter.

I say no as well and not just because I am biased. How many fines have our players received during this time frame? The last person our D knocked out was Kurt Warner and he already said that the hit was perfectly LEGAL.

I understand the wrong doing in this but C'MON!!! The amount of money they are talking about is chump change to NFL players. If they get fined, it would be more than what they would get from this so called "Bounty".

The timing of this is very suspicious.

Probably was Shanle cause I know he didn't make any money! :mrgreen:

So true. I want to laugh but I think this is going to have serious repercussions for the team. I just can't take a light-hearted approach about it.

Fujita's wife. THERE'S the snitch. lol

I don't see the problem. If they're clean hits, so what?

Bounty or no bounty shouldn't matter, a defensive player is gonna try to KTFO of a QB anyway. Its their job. It makes NFL highlight videos.

It doesn't matter if they were successful in knocking players out of the game... it's an issue of the coaches and GM encouraging that type of behavior. It's more of an organizational issue and that's going to be so much worse than individual players being dirty.

Ummm this isn't pee wee football. These are grown men playing a game that pays MILLIONS!! Don't think for a second every single defensive person is not trying to knock somebody out.

Should players be fined for highj-fiving and chest bumping each other after a monster hit? How about a cukoo dance?

Its just guys being guys and clowning around. Nothing to see here.

That doesn't make any sense in relation to what I typed. I'm talking about the Saints organization directly encouraging doing something that the league is taking such a hard-lined stance against.

OK, I'll conceed thats a good point, especially since they know its illegal.

Troubling. Not very principled. Not very sportsmanlike.

Glad they got rid of Williams if that is what he was doing.

Pant$ on the ground has a whole new meaning.

House cleaning might occur by Benson. Who knows.

GW had bounty system in place with Washington
 

The ESPN crawler said that Williams had a bounty system while he was DC of the Redskins.

This puts a target squarely on Drew's head.

I have always despised Greg Williams, so that doesn't change.

We're now down there with the Raiders, Steelers, Cowboys, Patriots as far as being a team that fans love to hate. I don't like that.

Not going to fare well for Saints fans at away games, that's for sure.

Alaska

Makes you kind of wonder... If Drew gets the franchise tag and holds out, might he request a trade? I'm just speculating, but with the squeaky clean image that he has I wonder if he's going to want to be a part of this stuff since we'll also be losing his best blocker and best wide receiver.

Please..give me a break. I know you think Drew is all squeaky clean but this crap has been going on forever. We are the ones getting caught because of a little ***** on our team.

Maybe I didn't quite elaborate well enough on what I was trying to say... Drew led the charge in the CBA negotiations last offseason in trying to get rid of the franchise tag. Now that he might be the victim of it, plus losing two players who help him exponentially in his success... He might not want to be a part of the fallout from these shenanigans. I'm sorry if I misspoke or sounded a little ignorant... the whole thing has me upset.

I hear ya but this whole thing should have you questioning the motives. The media is making this like we were trying to kill people. I truly believe this was just a motivation tool to add incentive to make a big play. They were told to stop because of what this would look like if it got out and low and behold look what happened.

Wtf. Clean hits deserve a bonus. So what

Where's all the "GW" homers now?

And why should their be any penalty - did they see the way the defense has performed the past two seasons?!?

You won't hear me apologizing for supporting GW while he was here. I got the satisfaction of experiencing the only championship in the history of our franchise.

Screw GW.

There are no words to describe how I feel at this moment. It's a good thing I'm no where near GW.

The ramifications of this are going to put us back in the dark ages with this team. We all thought we had this great locker room and we take in some strays and took a chance and this is what we got for it.

I believe this is rampant throughout the NFL, not just something singular to the Saints. I believe that if Goodell, who I feel is the worst commissioner the NFL has ever had, punishes the Saints before completing a full investigation of every team in the league and then taking equal action against every team that has done this, then it shows bias and an intention to single out the Saints to do damage that will impact this team for decades.

I believe that this investigation was started by that gutless wonder Childress and the equally gutless fans and players of the Vikings. I wonder if that college D-Line coach that worked for us for 1 lousy year then ran back to the college ranks was the rat. I hope we all find out who did this so he can reap his just rewards. So that everyone throughout the league knows who and what he is. That does not remove the fact that GW, SP and Loomis allowed this to continue, which is hard to believe because of the pathetic play and hits of this sorry excuse for a defense, but now we're going all the way back to square 1 with our reputation and our ability to attract free agents or for that matter, even draft choices to this team. We finally had what we've been waiting for, for years. A respectable team. Run with class and dignity and finally professionalizm. I am so disappointed in our coaching staff, our head coach ( That's ok Sean, we all know you got a gig in Dallas anytime you want it.) and Mickey Loomis that I can't even wear my Saints gear with pride, this team has embarrassed itself, it's ownership and more importantly it's loving, devout and loyal fan base that supports them better than ANY other team's fans support their teams. This is a very sad day.

Exactly!! If this would have been the Steelers or Lions(sorry Slo) I would beleive it because of all the fines they received. How many fines did our players get? I can only think of 2 players. Harper and Thomas for putting a bow on a football.

Dumb ! Gregg Williams. Is this why coach payton let you walk. DUMB.

Be Prepared....that means expect the worst in any situation. Football included, if you as a player do not want to receive pain from hard hits, then prepare yourself. Lineman have one train of thought, ball carriers another, and even more stressfull, the QB.

Kinda brings to mind the intimidation the QB has to deal with. don't like it, don't play the game.

Probably like 90% of us.....

I'm just curious.... If he did it with the Saints, and the Redskins, then why not investigate into his time in Jacksonville? Or any other team he ever coached for? The only constant in this whole idea is Gregg Williams..

Hey, it's a valid point. You would think a team with a 'bounty' system in place (allegedly) would have a reputation for being penalized and playing dirty. Before this story broke, had you taken a poll on the 'dirtiest' team in the league, it wouldn't have been New Orleans.

Emotions are high right now, it'll sort itself out.

So he goes to an NFC team, then admits to something he knows may end up costing us draft-picks.

Sounds like maybe he wants to knock his competition down a notch.

BTW: Bounties do not alter the way a player plays on the field.

Goosfraba!

That seems to be a pattern with this commissioner ... the "wussifying" and "skirtifying" of the game. I can almost hear babies cry....