April 5th, 2012Top Story "Kill The Fucking Head": Gregg Williams Told The Saints To Destroy The 49ers' Brains By Barry Petchesky What you're listening to is Gregg Williams hyping up the Saints before their playoff game with San Francisco. It becomes clear that New Orleans's bounty program was less about monetary reward and all about a mindset of agression, and punishment, and maliciously hitting the shit out of opposing players. As Williams puts it, "this is how you get respect in the league." This is also how you make sure you'll never coach in the NFL again: giving a speech like this with a filmmaker in the room. Documentarian Sean Pamphilon, who directed 30 for 30's "Run Ricky Run," was with the Saints working on a film about Steve Gleason, who's suffering from ALS. Today he released an edited, four-minute compilation of Williams's exhortations to the team the night before the game, and it's shocking for how unshocking it is: this is exactly what we expected to hear. There is an eminent difference between knowing that an NFL defense is targeting the heads of opponents (the Giants all but admitted doing it to San Francisco the very next week), and actually hearing a defensive coordinator say it. Some choice quotes from Gregg Williams, master motivator: "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." "Kill the head and the body will die. Kill the head and the body will die." "We hit fuckin' Smith right there"—[points to chin]–-'remember me.' I got the first one. I got the first one.—[rubs fingers together indicating cash]—Go lay that mother fucker out." "Every single one of you, before you get off the pile, affect the head. Early, affect the head. Continue to touch and affect the head." "We need to find out in the first two series of the game, the little wide receiver, No. 10, about his concussion. We need to fuckin' put a lick on him." Williams's overall message—"respect comes from fear"—is the backbone of professional football. You hit, you hit hard, you hit so hard they're afraid to get hit again. This is not reinventing the wheel, just rolling it over someone's head. It was inevitable that recent awareness of the effects of concussions would find its way into gameplans. For a couple of years players have been hearing nothing but how devastating and debilitating head shots can be. The logical conclusion is to dole them out generously to a team you need to beat. But now Roger Goodell has his smoking gun, his scapegoat, and zero choice. There's no way a league that professes to be proactive about head trauma can do anything other than blackball Williams. It would have been one thing (and just as cruel) if Williams had restricted himself to targeting Vernon Davis's ankle and Michael Crabtree's ACL, but the brain has become sacred. So even if similar bounties are offered by other teams. Just like the Saints' true crime was in getting caught, Gregg Williams only signed his death warrant when his words were caught on tape. Don't fuck around with concussions, or the NFL will be forced to fuck with you. There are two codas to this story, each equally poetic. That divisional playoff game, in which Williams promised "remember me" hits and head shots, is best remembered for the clean and brutal helmet-to-helmet hit on Pierre Thomas. Thomas left the game with a concussion, and the Saints never regained the upper hand. The second is Gregg Williams's statement when the Bountygate report was first released. "I want to express my sincere regret and apology," Williams said. "I am truly sorry." Compare and contrast Williams's speech to the Saints: "Never apologize for the way we compete. If you're in this room, you understand that. We don't apologize." Source: Gregg Williams instructed Saints during speech to injure Niners offensive players [Yahoo]

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