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As Abraham Lincoln once said, it's "better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." Unfortunately, New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is not a student of history."(Peyton Manning)'s got a great clock in his head," Williams told a Nashville radio station, via ESPN.com. "The big thing is that he throws the ball so early that we're going to have to do a good job of finding ways to get to him and when we do get to him we're going to have to make sure he gets a couple 'remember me' shots when we get there."
That quote by itself is not all that bad. There's nothing wrong with attempting to hit a player between the whistles -- that's football. However, it took on a whole new face when Williams then implied that the Saints would take a few personal foul penalties in exchange for hitting Peyton.
When asked about trading the penalties for a few hits, Williams said "If it happens, it happens," showing without a doubt that he's willing to play outside the rules in order to hurt Manning.
The comments wreaks not only of poor class, but of stupidity. It's bad enough to be willing to play outside the rules in order to injure someone, but to say it publicly is just plain stupid.
Buddy and Rex Ryan have both been accused of putting a "bounty" on players in an effort to knock them out of the game, but that was to be done between the whistles and within the boundaries of the rules.
Williams, on the other hand, has taken this to a new level that should be looked at by the league in an event that Peyton is illegally knocked around.
The same kind of underhanded tactics were used against Kurt Warner and Brett Favre, and the illegal beating that both guys took will most likely lead to their retirements. Warner has already retired, and the beating may just have been enough to even knock the Iron Man out of the league for good.
Thanks to Williams comments, the officials will probably be told to pay close attention to how the Saints' defense deals with Manning.
If there is a blatant late hit, it could result not only in a 15-yard penalty, but it wouldn't be a surprise if the officials throw someone out of the game to make their point to the rest of the team.
My hope is that either Williams wises up, the players don't get on board with his crazy scheme, or the officials jump on it early. A Drew Brees-Curtis Painter Super Bowl isn't exactly worth watching.
