Citation
Never say “you’ve seen it all.” Because that’s a lie.
I never imagined in eleventy billion years that former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and assistant head coach Joe Vitt could stand being in the same room. I assumed they found judges to place restraining orders on each other.
To my astonishment, the Jets announced Friday that Williams and Vitt will coach together again under the eye of Adam Gase, Vitt’s son-in-law. New York hired Vitt as a senior defensive assistant/outside linebackers coach, while Williams will oversee the defense as the coordinator.
I guess nearly seven years after the NFL banned Williams for the 2012 season and Vitt six games during that span for their involvement in the Saints’ infamous “Bountygate” scandal, the two have learned to coexist.
My lasting impression of the relationship between Williams and Vitt actually surrounded lies – which one was lying during their testimonies in front of former commissioner Paul Tagliabue in late November and early December of 2012.
I procured a copy of Vitt’s testimony from his Dec. 2, 2012, meeting with league officials and lawyers in downtown New Orleans two months after Vitt spoke and a little more than a month after Tagliabue vacated all the punishments for the four Saints players accused in the scandal: Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith, Anthony Hargrove and Scott Fujita.
Vitt started his testimony by claiming NFL investigators Jeff Miller and Joe Hummel agreed with Vitt that Williams was “a little crazy.” Vitt also said Williams claimed “24 teams have reached out to me and asked me to take the hit (for the bounty scandal) on this because they all do it.”
What followed through the lengthy testimony was wild, to say the least. Here are several excerpts from Vitt about Williams, which makes one wonder how in the hell these two can work together:
Peter Ginsberg, Jonathan Vilma’s lawyer throughout the bounty scandal: “Mr. Williams did testify that, at some point, he wanted to put an end to the pay-for-performance program and that you told him to keep going?”
Vitt: “I told him to keep going?”
Ginsberg: “Did that ever happen?”
Vitt: “No. But, again, I fully offer to take a lie detector test, whatever question you want to ask me. No, I never have. Just like I didn’t bring the program, just like I didn’t give the $5,000, just like, you know, we don’t have players and coaches that testify on behalf of what they said this bounty is. So there’s a lot of inaccuracies that we’re going to get to the bottom to – we’re going to get to the bottom of. There’s a lot of lying going on right now.”
Ginsberg: “Did you ever hear Gregg Williams identify or talk about particular opposing players?”
Vitt: “Let’s be candid. Have we all heard the Gregg Williams tape that was played the night before the San Francisco meeting? Have you heard that, Commissioner?”
Tagliabue: “Actually, I’ve heard about three-and-a-half minutes of it. Apparently it’s much longer.”
Vitt: “I would say probably, I don’t know, maybe, 10, 12 minutes, maybe a little longer than that. That was Gregg Williams, that was his schtick on Saturday night before the meeting. That was what he did. That was false bravado. And he’s not the only coordinator in the league that does this. You are getting your players ready to play a game, and so you heard Gregg Williams on that tape the night before the San Francisco game.
“Now when you put the tape on, you know how many penalties we had in the game, the San Francisco game? Do you know how many penalties our defense had? Do you know how many penalties our team had? One. We lost in the last four seconds of the game on a 14-game season, a 14-win season. And we went home and we lost in the playoff game. But you heard Gregg. I mean, that’s the way he talks. But that’s not the way our players play. So I think you said it best, Commissioner. There is a big difference in saying I want to kill him or did I kill him. There’s a big difference.”
Ginsberg: “Joe, what do you mean by that?”
Vitt: “Gregg Williams getting up there and talking about all the bravado that he wants to — let’s take this out, this ACL, let’s go take out this kneecap, let’s go crush this quarterback’s shoulder, all that stuff. He can say whatever he wants. It never transposed over to the playing field with our players. Our players never crossed the white line with the intent of injuring, maiming or ending the career of another player. It never happened.”
Vitt about the hiring of Williams from Paul Tagliabue: “And the first time we brought Gregg Williams, we said, ‘Jesus Christ, this guy is nuts. You know, I mean, talking about himself, talking about his accomplishments, talking about his money, talking about how he should — you know, the guy had a pretty bad track record in being a pretty good defensive coordinator.
“And really, he was in Jacksonville with Jack Del Rio at the time, you know, which was, you know, like sticking your nose in a fan. I mean, it’s just miserable down there anyway. …
“He wanted a ton of money, and, in fact, and I think you probably remember this, Sean (Payton, head coach), I think, gave $250,000 of his own money to fulfill Gregg Williams’ contract. Now, Sean lied to me about that because as soon as I found out he was taking money out of his own family’s mouth, I barged into his office, what are you doing. I didn’t do that, it’s a bunch of shit. Well, he did do it and, you know, Tom (Benson, owner) paid him back the money later on at the end of the year, and he was made whole, but I thought that was ridiculous.”
Ginsberg: “Why was Gregg Williams ultimately fired?”
Vitt: “… I mean, he’s – like I said, Gregg, during the course of a day, or Gregg during the course of a week, by the way he talks to people and by the way his voice sounds and by the tone of his voice and the tone of his intent, you know, I would have to go up and remind him, ask him, did he take his medication. Because he’s always telling me he’s on anger medicine, and I can always tell whatever the medication is that he’s not on it, he’s belligerent, you know, to people, and so I always have to remind him that you’ve got to take your medication”
Ginsberg: “Why was he fired?”
Vitt: “Okay. So we’re in the draft that spring, and Gregg has got a sensational desire to talk to the media and the press. He loves the media and the press. He wants to have good stories written about him. … So we’re in the draft that spring, and we’re all told as coaches there’s no cell phones in the draft room. It’s a — it’s what we’re all told. I mean, you don’t — there’s no phones down there. Well, Gregg would continually take his down there. He took it the first two years. And, you know, Sean is not a confrontational guy. But on this particular year in (2011), Gregg started texting our draft picks to the media about four or five minutes before we made the pick. Sean watched him do this from across the room. So he had the first two draft picks right. So Sean told me, and Sean was livid. And I didn’t want to believe it. I really didn’t want to believe it. So Sean says, well, watch this, I’ll show you the next round. The next round, he goes up to Gregg, and he goes, hey, we’re going to draft this offensive lineman out of Oklahoma and takes Gregg’s cell phone and covers it over with a piece of paper or a hat or whatever so Gregg can’t get to his cell phone — or excuse me.
“We’re going to take this guy from Oklahoma. Gregg texts this guy from Oklahoma to (New Orleans Times-Picayune columnist) Jeff Duncan, puts his phone down, and Sean comes over and covers his phone with a hat and changes the draft pick. Duncan reports about this kid from Oklahoma on the offense. So we had — at that point in time, Sean had had enough. And an exit strategy was in place to move on from — to move on from Gregg.
“Now, I think the biggest thing that everybody gets tired of with Gregg is just day after day, week after week of the bullshit, the crazy stories. I mean, I’m going to give you my texts. I’ll show you that all the time he’s got this insatiable desire to talk about himself. He’s got this insatiable desire to talk about how good he is and his family is. And in the course of all of the bullshit stories, you’ve got to work your way through it, you’ve got to — you know, you’ve got to try to get the meat and the potatoes of what’s true and not true. But after a while, that just gets to you. It just gets to you.
“I would say the final straw was the last two weeks of the season — of the Detroit, San Francisco (games), you know, Gregg kept coming to Sean every day and wanted his contract extension and wanted his extension done. And Sean said, well, we’ll talk about it at the end of the season, well knowing what direction Sean was going in. And the last week of the season, it’s all in the papers, you know, Gregg has gone to St. Louis, it’s his best friend Jeff Fisher, you know, ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom, trying to squeeze Sean, trying to squeeze Mickey (Loomis, Saints general manager) to get his contract. And the day after the playoff game that we lost against San Francisco, he went into Sean’s office and says I need to know right now, I need my contract, I’ve got to let Jeff know what I’m doing. And Sean said, you’re not going to get a contract here. I think it’s best go to St. Louis with your friend Jeff. And that was it. … It didn’t end pretty. It didn’t end nice. I’m sure that Gregg has a lot – I know that Gregg has a lot of animosity towards Sean. I’m sure he has a lot of animosity towards me now. But it is what it is, it’s the truth. And he was fired.”
Ginsberg: “Did coach Williams say anything about any kind of contribution he made to the Virginia Tech team (Williams’ son, Chase, played for the Hokies at the time) in order to prepare for the Sugar Bowl?”
Vitt: “Yeah, He said there was a bounty in place that he put in place for the Virginia Tech team in the Sugar Bowl.”
Ginsberg: “That was the kind of thing coach Williams liked to brag about?”
Vitt: “Well, yeah. He told our whole coaching staff, before anybody on the staff even asked, whether it was the offensive coach or the defensive coach, he’d brag all the time about it, that there was a bounty in place for the Sugar Bowl.”
Ginsberg: “A bounty or a pay-for-performance?”
Vitt: “A bounty in place – let me tell something, folks. It never happened. It never happened. But in his mind it did. In his mind it was in place. Yeah. You can ask any of the coaches.”
Mary Jo White, an attorney representing the NFL: “Did coach Payton ever tell you and Gregg Williams to get your ducks in a row before the NFL investigators came in 2010?”
Vitt: “As I’ve told word for word the investigators, I never heard Sean Payton use the words ‘ducks in a row’ before. I’ve never heard the term ‘ducks in a row.’”
White: “So the answer to my question is no?”
Vitt: “No. The answer is no.”
White: “Did he say in substance that you and Mr. Williams should get your stories together before the NFL investigator came in 2010?”
Vitt: “No.”
White: “You know that coach Williams said that he did say that to you and to –”
Vitt: “Good for coach Williams. We ought to bring coach Williams in here while I’m in here so we can discuss this. We ought to do that.”
White: “So if he testified to that –”
Vitt: “I thought Gregg was going to be here today.”
White: “So if he testified to that, that would be a lie?”
Vitt: “Yeah, that would be a lie.”
White: “But did you hear Mr. Vilma say in substance that he was offering or pledging $10,000 to any Saints defensive –”
Vitt: “No.”
White: “— player who knocked Brett Favre out the Saints/Vikings NFC Championship game?”
Vitt: “No.”
White: “You know that Gregg Williams has said that, in fact, he did say that?”
Vitt: “I don’t care.”
White: “Do you know that he said that?”
Vitt: “I don’t care what he said.”
Two questions later, White: “Are you aware that Gregg Williams has also testified that you were aware of this pledge?”
Vitt: “He testified to a federal judge like I did?”
White: “He testified before Commissioner Tagliabue.”
Vitt: “Oh, no. Oh, no, no.”
White: “If he testified to that effect, is he lying?”
Vitt: “He’s lying.”
White: “And do you know that he’s also testified that you pledged $5,000 –”
Vitt: “Good.”
White: “—to knock Brett Favre out of the game?”
Vitt: “Good.”
White: “Were you are of that before I said it?”
Vitt: “No.”
White: “If he testified to that, would that be a lie as well?”
Vitt: “Yeah, a big lie. I guess I need to take him to court, too. That’s good. That’s good to know. It’s funny, because the NFL investigators told me that Gregg Williams told the investigators there’s no way I gave money to any bounty or whatever word we used.”
Asked to clarify, Vitt: “The NFL investigators told me that Gregg Williams told them there’s no way that Joe Vitt ever gave money to a bounty. The NFL investigators told me that. So I guess Gregg switched his story again.”
After a back-and-forth between White and Vitt about sworn affidavits, Vitt: “I want to show you here the situations where Gregg Williams is a liar, where Gregg Williams is narcissistic, where Gregg Williams has lost his mind in situations. So you tell me what we’re going to believe and what we’re not going to believe. What. We’re going to believe this but we’re not going to believe this? It’s okay for you to believe this at one time, but no, we know he was lying at this time? We forgot about the cell phone, 24 other teams have begged him to please take the fall for this, because 24 other teams have this program. So, I mean, what are you going to believe?"
Le Transcript du témoignage de Vitt notre nouveau coach des OLB et beau père de Gase sur Greg Williams pendant le bounty gate, esseptionnel