Things got weird for the Chicago Bears after their opening day loss to the Green Bay Packers. Something was off. Sure, everybody wasn't happy they lost. It was a gut punch after months of hard work to improve the roster. However, a cloud was hanging over the locker room due to the unexpected absence of defensive coordinator Alan Williams. He left the team for "personal reasons," according to head coach Matt Eberflus, but the unusual lack of details suggested it might be something serious.
Then Bill Zimmerman of Windy City Gridiron hinted on Wednesday that not only was it serious, but it may end up ending Williams' time in Chicago. Well, the floodgates might be opening. Jon Zaghloul runs the Sports Talk Chicago channel on YouTube. He's interviewed several notable NFL figures over the past couple of years, including players, coaches, and executives. He isn't known for breaking news, so it was eye-opening when he dropped a bombshell indicating that law enforcement had raided both Halas Hall and Williams' home over the past few days.
Charles Tillman, who has worked for the FBI, reportedly broke the news to the team brass.
Alan Williams is reaching Sam Hurd levels of bad.
Everybody remembers the former Bears receiver getting arrested for running a drug traffic ring across the NFL. Whatever is going on with the defensive coordinator sounds far more sinister than that. If that weren't bad enough, the rumors are all over the place. Continued silence from the organization doesn't help.
One can't help but wonder if other people inside the organization knew about it and were covering for Alan Williams. That seems unlikely, but then again, everybody remembers previous fiascos like this. Eberflus was already under fire for how poorly the team has played for the past year and a half. The fact he may have hired a criminal as his defensive coordinator doesn't help his case.
If people thought the 2014 Bears were dysfunctional, this season is rapidly outpacing that one. One can safely surmise whenever the details emerge on Williams that they won't be good.
*************************************UPDATE**********************************
Williams has now officially resigned from the team. There is no clear reason as to what led to the decision. Even the Bears are shocked by it. As to the rumors mentioned above, those have been refuted.
It's likely that details on what really happened won't come out for some time. All one can do is speculate at this point.
***********SECOND UPDATE*********************
Courtney Cronin of ESPN reports that the issue is health and family-related for Williams.
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