In the immediate aftermath of the New Orleans Saints' bounty scandal the St. Louis Rams dumped new defensive coordinator Gregg Williams without a second thought. Saints fans—and management, whatever remains—have, for obvious reasons, not given up so quickly on head coach Sean Payton and his year-long suspension. Besides the #freepayton shirts there exists now the possibility that an appeal might leave him free to coach the Saints for some part of the 2012 season.
Of course, that move might not be worth the disruption that comes with it; is a small period of time at the helm of the 2012 Saints worth a potentially delayed start to his 2013 preparation?
Luckily—or unluckily—the Rams have no such difficult decision to make; they seem determined, instead, to move on under the collective, unconscious fiction that they never really hired Gregg Williams at all.
More bountygate analysis from SB Nation St. Louis:
- Across the Mississippi, Senator Dick Durbin called for hearings about the bounty scandals. Because lord knows we need more grandstanding about sports in our politics.
- Sean Payton and Gregg Williams made their bounty scandal bed, but the teams that hired them have to lie in it.
- No matter what his suspension turned out to be, the Rams should have fired Gregg Williams.