About 3 hours ago, the story broke that Gregg Williams, the Rams' new defensive coordinator, had overseen a program during his time at the Saints where players were paid to take opponents out of the game.
Instantly, we worried about the carryover effect to the Rams, though most felt relatively safe that the Saints would be the only team that would face any punishment outside of the individuals involved. It was contained (relatively). It was sequestered (somewhat). Scandals have a way of saying, "Oh, to hell with that. I gots news for yous."
Now, comes the revelation that Williams not only ran the program in New Orleans, but also in Washington during his time as DC for the Redskins.
Yay.
Welcome to your news cycle for weekend sports and into next week. No more Peyton Manning. No #2 pick. It's a whirlwind of players being paid to injure their opponents in the most micromanaged era of the NFL per player safety. And now, the Rams are square in the middle of it.
Sure, Gregg Williams is going to bear the brunt of this. But, and I won't be the only person bringing this up, what does it say about a franchise that brings in a coach willing to defy league convention so willingly? What level of investigation did the Rams take toward hiring Williams? And what procedures do they have in place to make sure that this wouldn't have happened in St. Louis?
The media's going to ask the first. The league will ask the next two. And the Rams better have some damn good answers if they want to make sure that this growing scandal stays contained to the individuals involved and the teams that employed Gregg Williams in the past decade unless they want to ruin what had been an otherwise successful offseason to this point.