49ers Carlos Rogers Defends Gregg Williams

San Francisco cornerback says Bountygate accusations are being taken out of context.

While some San Francisco 49ers are upset about a tape where a New Orleans Saints' coach allegedly calls for his players to injure their opponents, one prominent 49er is defending Gregg Williams.

Cornerback Carlos Rogers played for the suspended former New Orleans' defensive coordinator, who gave a fiery speech the night before his team played the 49ers in the playoffs this year.

Rogers took to San Francisco sports radio station KNBR to defend his former coach from his days with the Washington Redskins.

The recently resigned corner said the idea of Williams running a bouny system are being taken out of context.

"It wasn’t a bounty system," he said. "I’m close to Gregg, and I’m not trying to be biased. He’s one of the coaches I admire and would always love to play for. But, it wasn’t a bounty system."

Instead Rogers said players in Washington would encourage each other to get a legal hit on an opponent or wager on who would get an interception.

"It all started, when you’d be in the (defensive backs) room, just making wagers," he said. "Every DB put $100 in the pot. There’d probably be 10 of us in the room, that week, somebody get an interception, they’d get that $1,000. That’s basically what it was. You make a big hit, you put some money in the pot. It wasn’t about all these guys putting money in the pot for you to intentionally hurt somebody."

Rogers said Williams would be involved with some of the money being thrown around but not in the form of a bounty system.

"What Gregg do, is if you be late, I think it was like $1,900 fine by the league," he said. "If you miss a meeting, I think it’s $9,600 or somewhere up in that area. What he’d do, you don’t have to pay that (to the league), you’d pay $2,000 or something, but he’d just keep it in the room, you’d just keep it in the pot, and the guys that do perform, ‘OK, $1,000 if you get an interception. You get an interception return for a touchdown, you get $1,500.’ Stuff like that."

Rogers said the 49ers and most NFL teams talk about taking particular players out but not in the sense of illegally injuring them.

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