Let’s not be too quick to ban Gregg Williams for life from the NFL.
While it probably wasn’t a good idea to tell his charges to go out and hurt the 49ers while possibly knowingly being recorded, I still don’t think that he deserves to be kicked out the game forever.
Why? Because we have no idea how often comments like these are made on an NFL sideline.
If anything, it was just the worst of timing for Williams to have this come forward mere weeks after he was indefinitely suspended for his role in the Saints bounty scandal.
I do agree with his punishment for that incident, but adding anything more for saying what he did during the Niners-Saints game would just be piling on. He’s already going to sit for a season at least and will have to follow the league’s every wish to be reinstated when the time comes. Do we need to further ban a guy who is already serving one for an unknown length?
Besides, if the NFL were to suspend every player who said they wanted to hurt the other team during a game, well I don’t think we’d have any offensive linemen or defenders left in the league.
We don’t know if what Williams said was instructions to his players or just plain trash talk — but I’d think it was closer to the latter.
So, would you suspend a guy for trash talk if he was already sitting out a season for something much worse? That would be just rain drops in the ocean.
Besides, can you really employ this guy when he comes back? Chances are his NFL career is done anyway.