Former New Orleans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, described as the mastermind of the alleged Saints bounty program, testified that he was overruled by interim coach Joe Vitt when he tried to shut down the pay-for-injure system after the NFL began its investigation.
According to transcripts from appeals hearings obtained by The Associated Press, Williams said that then-assistant Vitt offered an obscenity-filled diatribe about how NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell ”wasn’t going to … tell us to … stop doing what won us the Super Bowl. This has been going on in the … National Football League forever, and it will go on here forever, when they run (me) out of there, it will still go on.”
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who overruled the players’ suspensions on Tuesday, heard Williams’ and Vitt’s testimonies to help him make his decision. Tagliabue, appointed by Goodell to handle the final round of appeals, said the players’ were caught up in the coaches’ scheme.
The AP obtained transcripts of Tagliabue’s closed-door hearings through a person with a role in the case.
Vitt was a Saints assistant who was banned for six games for his part in the scandal but now is filling in for head coach Sean Payton, who was suspended for the entire season. Williams was suspended indefinitely by Goodell. Others who testified included former defensive assistant Mike Cerullo, the initial whistleblower and considered a key NFL witness.
Transcripts were telling but not conclusive. They depict the former team of coaches as bitterly on different pages and occasionally contradicting how the NFL portrayed the bounty system.
Vitt, Williams and Cerullo appeared separately before Tagliabue and were questioned by lawyers for the NFL and lawyers representing the players originally suspended by Goodell: Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith, Scott Fujita and Anthony Hargrove.
Tagliabue ruled that ”Saints’ coaches and managers led a deliberate, unprecedented and effective effort to obstruct the NFL’s investigation.”
