Former LB Carl Banks Says Gregg Williams Speech is Normal

A man who spent a lot of time hearing defensive coaches give speeches is former Giants LB Carl Banks, as he went through a long career with the team, including 2 Super Bowl wins. He spoke about the speech Gregg Williams is attributed to, and saying that a lot of it is normal stuff that you hear.

And that, is scary.

“The tenor of the speech is not uncommon on a Saturday night before a game,” Banks told the Daily News Thursday. “Some of the stuff was over the line, but 90-95% was what you would hear within most (defensive) rooms.”

For anyone that hasn’t heard the speech, you can hear it at our post here.  In it, we hear Williams speak of going after Frank Gore, and to target Michael Crabtree’s knee, among other things.  He made repeated references to the phrase, “kill the head, the body will die”.

According to Banks, this was a coach getting his guys “riled up”, that this is all “coach speak”.

Banks did feel that commenting on Kyle Williams’ ACL was over the line, but mentions the fact that they didn’t really go after him during the game.

Here is Banks’ take on some of the other comments.

“The Kyle Williams concussion thing, that’s their game,” he said. “Look, if he  comes back from a concussion, the goal is not to give him a concussion. It’s, ‘Let’s put some shots on him.’ See if he’s timid. See if he’s fully  recovered. “If a running back has a bad ankle, you want to hit him and  see if he can cut. If he’s not effective, his coach is going to pull him  out.”

Carl Banks may be right. This may be what is said in locker rooms all over this league. The context of the situation is part of the problem.

Knowing that Williams was involved in the bounty program, and then hearing these statements, make it worse. Knowing that he has been found to be administering a bounty program, and then hearing these statements about specific guys, makes it a lot worse for Gregg Williams.

Secondly, I would like to think that other coaches don’t word it the same way. Maybe I am being naive, I mean I have never been in an NFL locker room. I would hope that other coaches would talk about attacking guys, seeing if they are healthy, rather than insinuating that they should take guys out of the game by injuring them.

And finally, if Carl Banks is right, it’s scary. If all over the sport, defensive coordinators are talking to their respective teams about injuring players, it’s a bad sign. It doesn’t make it right, calling it “coach talk”. The game is rough enough without calling out guys to injure. It’s unnecessary, and it’s scary.