There is nothing particularly complex about life on the defensive side of the football in the NFL. You hit hard and you hit often and when it comes to hitting the quarterback then you hit him twice as hard and twice as often. It sounds so simple but, alas, it can't be because nothing is ever quite as simple as it seems in the over-coached and over-regulated world of the NFL. So teams must hire defensive co-ordinators to execute these seemingly complex game plans. But when you distil all the Xs and Os and break it down to its purest form it still comes back to the same thing: punish the man with the ball. The gut-wrenching and earth-shattering collisions are why football is easily the most popular spectator sport in the United States, with annual revenues in excess of US$10 billion. Yes, football is an excessively violent game and in other news, water is wet.
It is what it is and in the violent world of football one of the most sought-after defensive coaches is a man called Gregg Williams. A former head coach, Williams is a learned man who has a bachelor's and master's degree in education and was contemplating a career in academia when an old friend contacted him about a college assistant-coaching vacancy some 25 years ago. As he rose through the ranks, players who were coached by Williams fondly recall his constant mantra: You hit the quarterback, you win the game.
Three years ago, Williams reached the pinnacle of his career when the defence he coached with the New Orleans Saints won the franchise's first ever Super Bowl against the Indianapolis Colts, who were then led by future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning. A few days before the game, Williams went on the radio and called for his defence to deliver 'remember me' shots to Manning. Two weeks earlier in the conference championship game, the Saints had delivered so many 'remember me' shots to Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre that the future Hall of Famer staggered around like a punch-drunk palooka. It was excessive, no question, but it was football. You don't like it? Then watch tennis or golf.
Of the four major US sports, only football has a clear delineation between offence and defence. In basketball, hockey and baseball most players are required to play both ways. Some do and some don't but they are still technically required to try. In football there is no ambiguity. Defensive players are hawkish predators who react. The offence knows where the ball is going; the defence viciously pursues. 'When you lined up against us,' former player Matt Bowen said of playing for Williams, 'you knew we were coming after you. It was our gig, our plan, our way to motivate, to extra-motivate.' They were, in essence, bounty hunters.
Actually, it turns out they were bounty hunters in reality as well. This week the NFL announced a security investigation revealed between 22 and 27 Saints defenders were involved in a bounty system administered by Williams that paid bonuses for knocking out opponents or having them carted off the field on a stretcher. Some opposition players, like Favre and Manning, were specifically targeted. The bounty system was thorough and systematic and both the Saints head coach and general manager were aware of it.
Williams has spent so much time apologising that you would swear he is running for chief executive of Hong Kong. 'It was a terrible mistake, and we knew it was wrong while we were doing it,' he said. 'I am truly sorry. I have learned a hard lesson and I guarantee that I will never participate in or allow this kind of activity to happen again.'