Gregg Williams: 'Bounty Gate' Will Test NFL's Commitment to Player Safety

If the NFL is serious about protecting the health and safety of its players from unnecessary and undue harm, it must seize this most shameful of "teachable moments," known now as "Bounty Gate," and bring the hammer down on former New Orleans Saints and current St. Louis Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.

Not that Williams is the first or the only coach in the league who used "bounties" to motivate his players to deliver devastating hits on the gridiron. By all accounts, this practice has long been a part of the culture of the NFL, one that preys on a player's long-standing instincts to crush his opponent with violent force.

That being said, and unfortunately for Williams, while he's not alone in this regard, he is the first to get caught. And given the NFL's ever-hardening stance with regard to mitigating the effects of injury and the legal liability that comes along with it, it's imperative for commissioner Roger Goodell and the rest of the folks at the league office to send a clear and unequivocal message with its handling of this situation.

That message must be one of great pain and humiliation, of essentially hanging Williams in the coaches' town square as a reminder to his peers that now is the time for a sea change in the culture of football, that this aggression shall not stand, that anyone who'd dare follow in Williams' footsteps will see the consequences of such actions visited manyfold upon their own heads.

Especially now that they've been sternly warned.

But the NFL's actions in this matter cannot, should not and will not end there. They must send shockwaves through the Saints organization, in which head coach Sean Payton and other members of his staff were allegedly aware of Williams' schemes and did nothing to stop them.

They must let the wrath of the rulebook wash over the Washington Redskins, with whom Williams encouraged headhunting, whether then-head coach Joe Gibbs knew about it or not.

They must bully the Buffalo Bills, for whom Williams served as head coach, to let the football world know that time doesn't heal all wounds, particularly those inflicted for reward.

Because the only way to root out this most unsavory of widespread cultural practices in the NFL is for the league office to take a strong stance against it, to make it loud and clear that football, while an inherently violent game, is not and will not be a platform for encouraging aggravated assault beyond the bounds of acceptable sportsmanship.

Whatever those may be.

Follow @J0shMart1n