Today there came breaking news of a scandal involving Rams defensive coordinator during his time with the Saints that is certainly big news. Per ESPN, the NFL announced today that an "investigation by the league's security department determined that an improper 'pay for performance' program included 'bounty' payments to players for inflicting injuries on opposing players that would result in them being removed from a game."
With the NFL making more of an emphasis on player safety every year, this bounty scandal will surely not be dealt with lightly and ESPN's John Clayton is already reporting that the punishment for the team could be a loss of their 2013 first round pick along with a pick from this year's draft (the Saints traded their 2012 first round pick away to acquire a pick with which they drafted RB Mark Ingram.)
Just hours after the breaking news of the bounty system with the Saints, to which Williams already admits and has apologized for, the Washington Post is reporting that the Redskins had a similar system under Williams in which players were compensated highly for "kill shots" that knocked opposing star players out of the game.
Williams served as the defensive coordinator for four seasons (2004-2007) before a one year stint with the Jaguars (2008), after which he joined the Saints for three seasons (2009-2011). While there have been no reports of a bounty system in Jacksonville, it's certainly not outlandish to imagine that Williams would have at least tried to implement such an idea if he did so in seven of the other eight seasons between 2004 and 2011.
Tania Ganguli of the Florida Times-Union said in a tweet that from what she is "hearing" the Jaguars did not have a bounty system during the horribly unsuccessful 2008 season in which Gregg Williams was the defensive coordinator so the coast may be clear.
The coast may not be so clear for brand new Jaguars defensive backs coach, Tony Oden, though. Oden joined the Jaguars for the 2012 season after spending the last six years as a secondary coach for the Saints. It's hard to imagine that there were defensive coaches for the Saints that were unaware of the rule breaking that Williams says he "knew was wrong while we were doing it."
How far the punishments from the NFL will extend and how harsh those punishments will be are still unknown and whether or not the scandal will stretch out to affect more teams is also unknown, but the bounty system of Gregg Williams has certainly added an intriguing new story line that hopefully does not affect the Jaguars.