So when a guy who coaches a struggling team nearly loses his job and knows that he definitely will be gone if he doesn’t turn things around, what does he do?
He takes a risk.
That’s what Titans coach Mike Munchak will be doing by bringing former Titans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams back to the team, if Williams ultimately is hired by the Titans and reinstated by the NFL. Even though Williams has been shunned by former Titans coach Jeff Fisher without ever even working for Fisher in St. Louis, Munchak is willing to roll out the red carpet for a coach who brings plenty of red flags.
Even though Williams undoubtedly won’t be running a pay-for-performance program or ranting about “killing the head” or targeting ACLs, Munchak also will face a challenge in the locker room, given the perception among players that Williams snitched on linebacker Jonathan Vilma, via a sworn statement and subsequent testimony at the appeal hearing before former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.
But Munchak, whose team invited scrutiny from the league office via tough talk from defensive coordinator Jerry Gray, has no choice. The team must improve in 2013 or Munchak won’t have a job come 2014. Which means that he has no choice but to go all in for a guy who otherwise would be permanently out of the league.
