Bills defensive end Mario Williams has had an interesting year, to say the least. He sued his ex-fiancée to recover a $785,000 engagement ring. In so doing, Williams invited a flurry of inflammatory statements from his ex-fiancée’s lawyer and the release of embarrassing text messages.
More recently, Williams said that new defensive coordinator Mike Pettine “always” says “kill ‘em or hurt ‘em” when it comes to opposing offenses. The next day, Williams replaced “always” with “never.”
Now, Tim Graham of the Buffalo News has spotted on Williams’ Instagram page a cartoon that pokes fun at Aaron Hernandez, with the “Grand Theft Auto” video game logo changed to “Grand Theft New England,” and with Hernandez’s face added to the body of a man sitting on the hood of a car with a gun in his hand.
Elsewhere on Williams’ Instagram page are multiple photos of the player brandishing and firing guns.
The development comes on the heels of former NFL defensive lineman Tank Johnson’s advice to rookies that players shouldn’t own guns.
“We advise players not to own guns and have a long-standing policy prohibiting the possession of guns by NFL employees at NFL facilities or while traveling on NFL business,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told Graham regarding the photos posted by Williams.
The photos do not show that Williams has violated any NFL policies, and the Bills haven’t commented on the situation. But, as Graham writes, it’s a “bad look.”
Maybe not as bad as dancing butt-naked in front of a camera, but a bad look nevertheless.
UPDATE 8:27 a.m., 6/28/13: The Bills subsequently provided a comment to Graham. “We discuss the NFL policy regarding guns with all of our players,” the team said. “Mario adheres to the policy and has taken the necessary steps to ensure that his guns are legal with the proper documentation. It has been well documented that Mario has promoted safe and legal firearm possession.”
