Pamphilon called Williams arrogant

By the time New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton slipped out a back exit at the N.F.L.’s office in Manhattan and silently got cheap louis vuitton shoes for women into a waiting van, his long-shot appeal of a yearlong suspension already heard, the stain of the Saints’ bounty scandal had grown worse.

On Thursday morning, hours before Payton; his assistant head coach, Joe Vitt; General Manager Mickey Loomis; and other representatives of the Saints met separately with Commissioner Roger Goodell to plead for reductions in the sanctions levied against them, Yahoo Sports reported on the existence of an expletive-laced recording in which Gregg Williams, the Saints’ former defensive coordinator, exhorted his team to inflict physical damage on specific players in a playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers in January.

Williams, who has been barred from the league indefinitely, repeatedly spoke of hitting the opponents’ heads.

Williams pointed to his chin while telling his players to hit 49ers quarterback Alex Smith “right there,” saying: “Remember me. I got the first one. I got the first one. Go get it,” while rubbing his fingers together to indicate there would be cash paid for the hit.

He also said: “Every single one of you, before you get off the pile, affect the head. Early, affect the head. Continue, touch and hit the head.”

About 49ers running back Frank Gore, Williams said: “We’ve got to do everything in the world to make sure we kill Frank Gore’s head. We want him running sideways. We want his head sideways.”

Later, Williams talked about hits he wanted put on Kyle Williams, mentioning his history of concussions, and receiver Michael Crabtree, urging them to “take out” his knee ligament.

The snapshot the tape gave of the Saints’ bounty system echoed what an N.F.L. investigation revealed that Gregg Williams had done at various times in the last three years. But the timing of the speech was damning, because it came two weeks after the N.F.L. had told the Saints that the bounties were being investigated.

It also came after the team’s louis vuitton men t-shirts owner, Tom Benson, instructed Loomis to ensure that the bounties would stop immediately.

According to the N.F.L.’s investigation, Loomis and Payton made only cursory inquiries about the bounty program, and neither took any action to stop it. The tape makes clear that the bounties continued until the Saints’ season ended with a 36-32 loss to the 49ers.

Williams did not appeal his suspension, although the revelation of the tape — which the N.F.L. may not have known about until a documentary filmmaker, Sean Pamphilon, released it — does not help his chances of reinstatement after the 2012 season. The St. Louis Rams hired Williams after he left the Saints.

Pamphilon was working on a project about Steve Gleason, a former Saints player who has A.L.S., commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

On Thursday, it became clear what the others implicated in the Saints’ scandal would use as their defense. David Cornwell, Vitt’s lawyer, said Loomis and Payton went to Williams after they were advised that the league was investigating the bounties and told him there was no place in the league for that kind of activity.

“Sean will tell you, in his view, what you saw was a rogue coach who knew he was about to get fired,” Cornwell said.

Vitt said he wanted to make the point to Goodell that “we don’t teach this, but at the same time we have to watch our wording, watch what we say and what we do.”

Cornwell added: “This wasn’t the only issue with Gregg Williams in this organization. There were issues with the staff and other things. And he was fired two days later. He was on the way out and he got fired.”

It seems unlikely that argument will carry much weight with Goodell, who has repeatedly indicated he was upset that the Saints’ top executives did not stop the bounties and lied repeatedly about them until a few weeks ago. Goodell could rule on the appeals by Friday.

Payton’s suspension was supposed to begin April 1, but he was allowed to keep working until the appeal was decided. The suspensions for Vitt and Loomis do not begin until the regular season. The franchise was also fined $500,000 and lost second-round picks in the 2012 and 2013 drafts.

The Saints have had discussions with Bill Parcells about taking Payton’s spot for the season. But the team would first have to interview a coaching candidate from a minority group to be in compliance with the league’s Rooney Rule, and a person briefed on the Saints’ decision-making said Thursday that no such interview had taken place and that the team was waiting for the outcome of the appeal before proceeding.

Reaction to the recording of Williams was as mixed as it was to the investigation into the bounties. Several former N.F.L. players, Classic louis vuitton sunglasses outlet 2012 new sale online discount including Tim Hasselbeck and Ross Tucker, indicated on their Twitter feeds that they thought Williams’s language was normal in the league.

The recording also called to mind comments by two Giants players after the N.F.C. championship game, in which they noted that they knew Kyle Williams had sustained earlier concussions and they wanted to hit him because of it. That suggested that Giants players were at least briefed before the game on the injury history of their opponents.

But other players were surprised by the explicit direction from Gregg Williams.

“I’ve never had a coach say anything, never once say to hurt or offer anything,” Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison said. “I’ve been around for 10 years; I’ve never heard anything like that.”

On Twitter, Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins criticized Pamphilon for releasing the tape.

“Sean Pamphilon is a coward and should be ashamed for taking advantage of Steve Gleason! How much did u get paid for that audio?” Jenkins wrote.

On Thursday afternoon, around the time Payton was meeting with Goodell, Pamphilon released a statement in which he sought to explain why he released the tape. Pamphilon called Williams arrogant, saying, “It’s a coward’s play to send someone off to do your malicious bidding.” He also defended Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma, among others, who the N.F.L. said offered his own money if a teammate knocked Brett Favre out of the 2010 N.F.C. championship game.

“If it weren’t for the fact I burberry bags feel deeply that parents of children playing football MUST pay attention to the influence of men who will sacrifice their kids for W’s, I would not have written this,” he said.