By now, everyone should have heard about the controversy of Gregg Williams' bounty program that he ran with the New Orleans Saints and possibly the Washington Redskins. The question now is whether or not he should ever be allowed to coach in the NFL again. What do you think?
It is one thing to mention hurting opposing players to try and get your team excited and motivated, but it is something else completely to actually make it a goal to hurt the other team, and pay players bonuses if they succeed in doing so. There is no place in football at the professional or college level for that kind of behavior.
The reasons are obvious, in college especially. We have all seen the extent to which some of these on-field injuries can effect people's lives. Kevin Everett is a prime example. His injuries were considered life threatening and it is considered a miracle that he was ever able to walk again. Not to mention all of the problems the league is having with concussions recently. It is shocking that there is someone out there who actually asks his players to cause this.
As a Redskins fan, I was a huge fan of Gregg Williams. He took the Redskins defense from one of the worst in the league to one of the best in a single year. I'm not saying he isn't a good coach, but nobody who approaches the game in such a violent way should be allowed to coach at this level.
I am appalled at both Sean Payton and Joe Gibbs for knowing about this program and allowing it to continue. The Saints got what was coming to them, but should the Redskins be punished as well? According to an article in the Washington Post, former Redskins cornerback Carlos Rogers came out saying that what Williams ran with the saints was nothing like what he did when he was the Redskins coach. He claims it was not a bounty system and went on to explain it in more detail.
[caption id="attachment_926" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Did the Redskins also have a bounty program in place?"]
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“It all started, when you’d be in the [defensive backs] room, just making wagers. Every DB put $100 in the pot. There'd probably be 10 of us in the room, that week, somebody get an interception, they’d get that $1,000. That’s basically what it was. You make a big hit, you put some money in the pot. It wasn’t about all these guys putting money in the pot for you to intentionally hurt somebody."
The NFL has investigated the Redskins and determined that there was no proof that the Redskins ran a system similar to what the Saints ran. One could argue, however, that offering money for big defensive plays is where this whole scandal stemmed from, but the Redskins seem to be clear of this whole thing, as they should be if everything that Carlos Rogers said is, in fact, true.
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