After more than three decades of coaching in the NFL, Gregg Williams still remains unapologetically himself.
Williams’s tenacious approach to defense will be on display in the D.C. Defenders’ season opener Sunday night at Audi Field. Having coached in the NFL from 1990 to 2020, Williams is now tasked with producing an aggressive defense in the XFL, a league full of players hoping to make an impression.
Williams said he turned down NFL coaching opportunities to embark on his first endeavor in a spring football league.
Why?
Williams said he enjoys teaching players who ordinarily get overlooked and otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to advance their careers.
“This is a perfect, perfect setting here to have the entire team be that way,” Williams said. “It brings a smile to my face every single day we get a chance to compete and get better.”
Defenders safety Santos Ramirez is one of those players trying to take the next step. He may have a leg up on his teammates, having played under Williams with the New York Jets in the 2019 preseason. Ramirez, who credits Williams with elevating his game that summer, appreciates that Williams has ventured outside of the NFL.
“That shows the character of Coach Gregg,” Ramirez said. “People only hear [of] him and think of [Bountygate] or this aggressive [jerk], but honestly, Coach Gregg is a very [humble] man, and he’s willing to help guys that don’t have those opportunities.”
Williams is working with a staff full of coaches he has never partnered with, so putting in extra work to explain his defense has been paramount. Moving down a level will be an adjustment, but his assistants say he is embracing the change.
“The guy is a premier defensive coordinator in the world. I think this is a challenge to show everybody that he’s still the man,” Defenders defensive line coach Jeremy Watkins said.
Defenders linebackers and special teams coach Jamie Sharper added: “When somebody loves football, they don’t care if they’re coaching in high school, college, pro. If they love football, they want to teach and they want to be hands-on.”
In 2012, shortly after he left the New Orleans Saints, where he was defensive coordinator, for the same role with the St. Louis Rams, Williams was suspended for implementing a bounty system in which Saints players were incentivized for hits that injured opponents. Williams’s suspension lasted a year, and the Rams fired him before he coached a game; Williams landed as a defensive assistant for the Tennessee Titans in 2013.
Multiple Washington players said Williams had a similar system during his time with the franchise. But Defenders Coach Reggie Barlow said Bountygate did not give him pause when it came to having Williams on his staff.
Williams’s style and fiery persona have brought both praise and scrutiny, but his reputation hasn’t kept him from maintaining connections with his former players.
“I’ve been blessed to have coached now between 2,000 and 2,500 NFL players,” Williams said. “Over a thousand of them call me or text me on Father’s Day. I guess I’m not as big a [jerk] as everybody says I am.”
Former NFL linebacker Eddie Robinson Jr. helped facilitate the alliance between Williams and Barlow. Robinson played eight seasons under Williams and two alongside Barlow with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Barlow said Williams offers “instant credibility,” adding, “He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, things that we all will be able to learn from and have an appreciation for.”
Williams and Barlow joined the XFL not knowing what city they would work in. Both originally believed they would be coaching in San Antonio, but reshuffling brought them to the nation’s capital.
“I just smiled thinking about getting an opportunity to go back to Washington, D.C., as one of my favorite places I’ve been to,” Williams said.
Williams is looking forward to the environment at Defenders games at Audi Field.
“[Washington is] one of the most powerful and fun fan bases that I’ve been a part of,” Williams said.
“I tease him all the time: He’s the rock star of our fans,” Barlow said.
Defenders quality control coach Deion Harris grew up a Washington fan in Northern Virginia when Williams was spearheading the team’s defense. He said he was star-struck the first time he met Williams.
“I was trying to be super professional,” Harris said. “Once my family found out I was going to be working with Gregg Williams, of course they went crazy and berserk. My stepdad, he sent me pictures. He was like, ‘Hey, man, can you get him to sign this?’ I was like, ‘I’m not going to ask him.’ ”
Harris quickly found out Williams was happy to oblige.
The Defenders spent training camp in Arlington, Tex., where they also will hold their practices between games. But Williams makes sure to tie in his Washington tenure and regularly invokes memories of one of his favorite players, former Washington safety Sean Taylor.
“I tell them all the time about how hard he would work when nobody else was looking and what a phenomenal, conditioned athlete he was and all the amazing study habits and hard-work habits that he had behind the scenes,” Williams said.
With the Defenders, Williams’s expectation of discipline applies to how players sit in their chairs, how they pay attention when he talks, how they take notes, how they warm up and how they practice. Players are willing to adhere to this kind of coaching if it means improving their chances of making it to the NFL.
“Every day’s an interview, and you’ve got to be ready to be the best,” Williams said. “And if you’re not willing to do that, then I hope you have your degree and go on to another profession.”
“You will never be able to say, ‘I did not know,’ ‘I did not hear,’ ‘I did not understand,’ because he’s going to cover every single point of every single thing that you’ve got to do in the game,” Ramirez said.
