George Henshaw was hired by Sean Payton as an assistant coach with New Orleans in 2006 and worked with eventual Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams when both were coaching with the Titans. These days, he works for the National Collegiate Scouting Association -- and we had a chance to talk with him earlier Thursday about the Saints bounty punishments. We'll have a full Q&A online later and in tomorrow's paper, but here are a couple snippets:
RB: What was your overall reaction to what came down?
GH: From the beginning, it was very much a surprise to me. And I really thought it was a situation that was blown out of proportion. That was my initial reaction when I first heard about (the bounties). But the more you heard about it, you become extremely disappointed. You know these are guys you worked with. And a coach is going to defend a coach whenever possible. But you can't defend this action, what went on. It's very disappointing that it did go on. It's even more disappointing that there was a cover-up and people lied about it.
RB: People have tried to say, in defense of this, is that it's part of the culture of football and that this happens all over the NFL. How do you respond to that?
GH: I'd whole-heartedly disagree with that. When you're giving a player an incentive to injure another player … any way you cut it, that's about as bad as you can get.
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