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Gregg Williams says talk that he stole a playbook is “a joke”

File photo of Buffalo Bills head coach Gregg Williams

Buffalo Bills head coach Gregg Williams adjusts his head set during the first half of the season NFL opener at Ralph Wilson Stadium, Orchard Park, New York, in this September 9, 2001 file photograph. The Buffalo Bills and the Tennessee Titans are the latest National Football League (NFL) teams to be linked to bounty schemes which rewarded big hits on players. The NFL announced on March 2, 2012 that their own investigation had uncovered that defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, currently with the New Orleans Saints and formerly with the Washington Redskins and Buffalo Bills, ran such a rewards scheme, including informal bonuses for knocking players out of a game, during three years at the Saints from 2009. Former Washington Redskins strong safety Matt Bowen said on March 3 that a similar bounty, made up of funds generated by the players themselves, was in operation during Williams’s time with the team. REUTERS/Gary Wiepert/Files (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT FOOTBALL)

REUTERS

A couple of weeks ago, former NFL defensive end Renaldo Wynn raised some eyebrows when he said that his former coach Gregg Williams told him that the Titans had the Jaguars’ playbook and used it to prepare to beat the Jaguars in the 1999 AFC Championship Game. Wynn later backtracked on that claim, and now Williams is saying the whole thing is ridiculous.

At his introductory press conference as defensive coordinator of the Rams, Williams said there was nothing to Wynn’s comments.

“That was really a joke story,” Williams said. “That was a joke, to me.”

Williams did say, however, that he compares notes on playbooks from around the league with other coaches, and that he has a large collection of old playbooks.

“I do collect playbooks,” Williams said. “I love to see what other people call a term that you use.”

But Williams said that coaches can glean all the information they need from tape study.

“We understand football and don’t need anybody else’s playbooks,” Williams said.

Williams may not have stolen anyone’s playbook, but his suggestion that there would be no benefit from having another team’s playbook seems farfetched. After all, there’s a reason that Williams isn’t going to post the Rams’ defensive playbook on the team’s website.