Players have always bought in to Gregg Williams' message -- like it or not. (AP)
LOS ANGELES -- In the public eye and to various NFL administrators, Gregg Williams is very much the face of BountyGate, and all that is wrong with football today. But to his players past and present, the current defensive assistant with the Tennessee Titans and former defensive coach and coordinator with seven different NFL teams has a name with a very different ring to it. To most of the men he's coached, Williams inspires profound loyalty, which speaks to the difference between those who want the game to be different from the outside, and those who have to survive it in the here and now.
“The bottom line is still getting the players to perform, and what I’ve been able to do, I guess, and had the opportunity to do at a lot of different places is, ‘How do you make an average guy good, a good guy great, and if you have a chance to coach a great guy, he’s got to be great on your watch,’”Williams said upon his Tennessee hire. “This is still a production business. You have to get them to do that and people have to understand how to do that.”
And a Titans defense that finished 19th against the pass and 29th against the run, per Football Outsiders' opponent-adjusted metrics, are looking for that quick fix.
Akeem Ayers sees Gregg Williams as an agent of change. (Getty Images)Put simply, Gregg Williams improves defenses, and defensive players. Those defensive players appreciate it, beyond what you may hear and know. Matt Bowen, current columnist for the National Football Post and Chicago Tribune, wrote about "crossing the line," and how Williams helped him do it, when Williams coached Bowen as a safety for the Washington Redskins in 2004 and 2005. Bowen is now one of the most astute football minds in the media, but he brought a player's perspective to the Williams issue -- and once you're indoctrinated, it's tough to part that out. Even after the history becomes more convoluted.
"Williams is the best coach I ever played for in my years in the NFL, a true teacher who developed me as a player," Bowen wrote in March of 2012. "I believed in him. I still do. That will never change.
"Williams is an excellent motivator. You do what he wants: play tough, push the envelope and carry a swagger that every opponent sees on tape. When you lined up against us, you knew we were coming after you. It was our gig, our plan, our way to motivate, to extra-motivate. I wanted to be That Guy for him, playing the game with an attitude opposing players absolutely feared. If that meant playing through the whistle or going low on a tackle, I did it."
When I talked to former Jacksonville Jaguars and New Orleans Saints defensive end Paul Spicer about playing for Williams in two different cities, he echoed many of those same thoughts.
Read More »from Gregg Williams’ players, past and present, don’t hold bounty narrative against him