Upping the bounty on Gregg Williams

Audio from a documentary about former Saints player Steve Gleason was released today that has Gregg Williams pretty much on record as to what he was trying to achieve as the defensive coordinator. The audio came from Williams' pregame talk to his defense before New Orleans' playoff loss to San Francisco. Excerpts:

We've got to do everything in the world to make sure we kill Frank Gore's head. We want him running sideways. We want his head sideways.

We need to find out in the first two series of the game, that little wide receiver, No. 10, [Kyle Williams] about his concussion. We need to fucking put a lick on him right now. He needs to decide. He needs to fucking decide.

We need to decide whether Crabtree wants to be a fake-ass prima donna, or he wants to be a tough guy. We need to find out. He becomes human when we fucking take out that outside ACL.

We need to decide how many times we can bull rush and and we can fucking put Vernon Davis' ankles over the pile.

Little 32 [Kendall Hunter], we're going to knock the f--- out of him.

Williams also encouraged his men to hit 49ers Alex Smith in the chin, pointing to his own chin and saying, Remember me. I got the first one. I got the first one. Go get it. Go lay that motherfucker out.

He also encouraged Saints defenders to continually hit Smith in the head. Every single one of you, before you get off the pile, affect the head. Early, affect the head. Continue, touch and hit the head.

There's a fine line between coaching aggressive play vs. coaching dirty play. Gregg Williams stepped over that line, then turned around and pissed on it, walked away, then turned back around and took a dump on it. This is exactly why the Rams shouldn't even leave the matter open of Williams ever coaching for the team. Rams Nation was hoping for an aggressive coach, none of us claim otherwise. We weren't hoping for Rodney Harrison in a ball cap and headphones. Encouraging players to hit hard is one thing. Encouraging them to hit other players in the head or knees, or bend them backwards at the ankles, is beyond the pale. It's also stupid coaching, as a lot of the actions Williams urges would draw penalty flags. There's no use for this, by any team at any level of football.

If it wasn't already, this audio pretty much permanently cements the reputation of Gregg Williams as a man who coaches dirty play, the cheap-shot artist of NFL coaches. This reputation's going to follow him everywhere, always. Think not? Well, a paragraph ago I showed I'm still pissed off about a cheap shot a player delivered almost 13 years ago, and that cheap shot didn't prevent the Rams from winning the Super Bowl!

The Rams don't need Williams' ethical cloud following them everywhere they go, lurking in the shadows, lurking in the back of every fan's, every commentator's, every opposing player's, every official's mind every time a Ram delivers a hard but otherwise clean hit.

Fire Gregg Williams now. It should have been done already.

At the same time, let me make something completely clear here. NFL.com's headline feature right now, by Jeff Darlington, captioned "The Last Straw," without coming absolutely right out and saying it, pretty much suggests commissioner Roger Goodell go ahead and ban Williams for life. That's not exactly setting the tone for Williams to get a fair trial from the league. Williams may be an all-time heel, but this is America. He deserves the NFL equivalent of his day in court. One-sided articles like this on the league's website make that a difficult challenge, and the league is wrong to do it.

And let me make something else completely clear. Michael Crabtree is in fact a fake-ass prima donna.

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