I read with horror some of the reports written about former Washington Redskins defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and the bounty systems he had allegedly installed on some of the teams he has been with over the years. These reports made me cringe. I was mortified by the apparent malicious intent to injure. But I also got to thinking, “Hold the phone… This is professional football. It’s a violent game.”
It has to be noted that playing a violent game with its inescapable resulting injury and “intent to injure” are two different things.
As a Washington Redskins fan, I am mostly concerned with things that went on in my home town. Did Williams really get away with the Hitler-like behavior that has been described in the press while he was here? Did our beloved head coach Joe Gibbs really not know anything about his defensive coordinator giving thousands of dollars to players to intentionally lay a hit on another player that was hard enough to seriously injure him?
I find it hard to believe that a man who had total control of the organization from top to bottom didn’t know that a bounty system was in place and that money was changing hands – especially a man of Gibbs’ intelligence, experience and faith. Even more so, I can’t believe that it could go on for years without him knowing. That Gibbs didn’t know about the one-time 10-man formation that Williams installed in the game against the Buffalo Bills after the late, great safety Sean Taylor died is one thing. It is a lot different than the head coach not knowing about an illegal (and unethical) bounty system.
(I do know this. Taylor did not need “bounty booty” to motivate him to level Buffalo punter Brian Moorman on a fake punt. Our favorite Number 21 was a wondrous freak of nature in his athletic talent and instinct. He had a nose for where the football was and an ingrown urge to knock it out of whoever’s arms the pigskin was in. He did not need his defensive coordinator or anyone else to motivate him with a “bounty” to do what he did best.)
I also know that players like former Redskins defensive end (and current Director of Player Development) Phillip Daniels was not motivated by a bounty to team up with former Redskins defensive line teammate (now with the New England Patriots) Andre Carter to cause permanent injury to (possibly former) Indianapolis Colt quarterback Peyton Manning. He and Carter were simply good football players and wanted to win that game. They did what they have been trained to do and what Baltimore Ravens’ Terrell Suggs, Dallas Cowboys’ DeMarcus Ware or the Colts’ Dwight Freeney would do. As defensive linemen, they went after the quarterback. With Manning being who he is, it would behoove any defensive player to sack, hurry, chase, hit or harass him in any way possible in order to keep him from making the plays the veteran Pro Bowler and MVP is so well known for.
Would Daniels and Carter – and players like them – really need the motivation of $100 to $1,000 to make a big hit? No. It is more a question of pride than a monetary thing. These are professional football players. They did their jobs like they have been doing for years. And years and years. Since the days of Pop Warner, defensive, special teams and even offensive players have been taught to play this physical game with as much emotion, strength and determination as they can. Make no mistake; it is the big hits that make the highlight reels and that cause the “oohs” and “aahhs” during a football game. But this does not mean these players are intentionally trying to cause their opponents irreparable injury.
These same players that are so violent while they are “at work” are the same guys who help the guys up that they have hit so hard or hang around to make sure that the opposing player is alright. They sometimes kneel and say a prayer while he is being carted off of the field. As a matter of interest, Washington Redskins players have actually been criticized for doing this too much.
Regarding the Redskins’ “bounty fund,” this was actually a “Pay-for-Performance” system or fund and it was collected in a couple of different ways. Players paid team fines collected as a penalty for things like being late to meetings, not knowing the play book well enough or not practicing hard enough. The pot was also fattened by the players themselves, who contributed to it out of their own pockets in order to make it bigger. They then earned these funds back after games if they made the first big hit, logged the most sacks, forced the most fumbles and/or got the most interceptions during a game. Instruction was never given by Gregg Williams to go after a specific player, hit him below the knee, knock him out of the game or any other manner of hurt a player can put on the opposition.
It was interesting to find out that at the time Joe Gibbs was head coach in Washington, all across the league, players did not know that this type of collection and distribution of money was not permitted in the NFL. This is a real problem and the NFL needs to do something about educating their employees better on this subject. Listening to players talk about the bounty vs. performance funds now, it is easy to see that the whole concept of funds being paid to players outside of their paychecks – whether it was collected from fines or each other – it has been a gray area up until now. One person said, “I did not know at the time that it was not permitted in the NFL to hand out cash for good performance during games.”
Even so, “Pay-for-Performance” most certainly is not the same thing as sending a player out onto the field to intentionally maim another player. It would be a shame if, in analyzing what a player said about a this type of collection and distribution of funds here in the nation’s capital, it was misconstrued as a “bounty.”
So far, Gregg Williams has officially apologized only for a system implemented while he was defensive coordinator with the New Orleans Saints (for all the good it apparently did… the year they went to to the Superbowl, their defense was less than stellar) and it was right for him to do so. He most certainly is an enticing public figure and, with his “outgoing” personality, it is easy to make him out as a villain. And I am not saying that throughout his career, the gregarious coach didn’t install some sort of bounty system in his defenses. But I have been told by more than one person that he did not implement one here in Washington. I trust the knowledge of the situation – and motivation – of the people from whom I have received this information.
An athlete I know told me that:
“There are incentives all over sports, beginning as early as Little League and moving up through middle and high school. Not practicing or playing well will get you more laps or push-ups in practice and a good performance will earn you someone else carrying your equipment. In college, it can become on-the-field fight to be the first in the shower by putting on a good performance. It doesn’t change once you get to the professional level.”
Hail.