Saints Coach Instructed Players To Hurt 49ers In New Audio Released
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A newly released recording purports to capture former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams telling players to "put a lick" on San Francisco's Kyle Williams to see if the receiver has lingering effects from an earlier concussion.
Filmmaker Sean Pamphilon, who had access to Saints meetings for a documentary on football, has posted the audio on his web site. Pamphilon initially shared the content with Yahoo Sports, telling the website that while he was not bothered by much of Williams' profanity-laced speech, he was troubled by comments about the previously concussed player.
"I thought, 'Did he just say that?'" Pamphilon said in an article posted Thursday. "That was the red flag for me."
Williams, who is suspended indefinitely for his admitted role in overseeing a bounty system that offered Saints defenders cash for big hits, did not immediately respond to a phone message and email left with his foundation in Missouri on Thursday.
Pamphilon made the recording during a meeting before the Saints lost to the 49ers in a divisional playoff game in January.
When the New York Giants defeated the 49ers a week later in the NFC title game, several Giants players made similar comments about wanting to get hits on Williams, who fumbled twice in the game, because they knew he had previous concussions.
In Pamphilon's recording, Williams also tells his players to set their sights on running back Frank Gore, quarterback Alex Smith and receiver Michael Crabtree.
"We need to decide on how many times we can beat Frank Gore's head," he says.
Williams also implores his charges to "lay out" Smith and later adds, "We need to decide whether Crabtree wants to be a (expletive) prima donna or he wants to be a tough guy. He becomes human when we ... take out that outside ACL."
Pamphilon also described Williams pointing to his chin when he said, "We hit (expletive) Smith right there."
Pamphilon said Williams then rubbed his fingers together as one might do when doling out cash, saying, "I got the first one," which Pamphilon understood to mean the defensive coordinator had placed a cash bounty on Smith.
The NFL has said Williams' bounty system offered off-the-books cash payments of $1,000 or more for hits that either knocked targeted opponents out of games or left them needing help off the field, and the Saints have been punished heavily for allowing such a program to endure for three seasons.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell also suspended Saints head coach Sean Payton for the entire 2012 season, while handing down additional suspensions of eight games to general manager Mickey Loomis and six games to assistant head coach Joe Vitt, who also coaches linebackers. The Saints, meanwhile, were fined $500,000 and docked second-round draft picks this year and next.
The Williams recording was released on the same day that the Payton, Loomis and Vitt were in New York for an appeal hearing regarding their unprecedented punishments.
Pamphilon said Payton and Loomis were not in the room when the recording of Williams was made.
Williams can be heard using metaphors he has often used throughout his coaching career, such as, "kill the head and the body will die." That was Williams' way of urging players to disrupt opposing teams' star players with intimidating and nasty physical play. Another of Williams' mantras was that "respect comes from fear," which he repeats in the recording.
"We've got to do everything we can in the world to make sure we kill Frank Gore's head," Williams says. "We want him running sideways. We want his head sideways."
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.)
