After all the craziness of the past year, Chicago Bears fans have no doubt completely forgotten Alan Williams. The long-time assistant coach was hired as the defensive coordinator in 2022 to work under Matt Eberflus. Things didn’t go well. The defense struggled a lot that first year. Things didn’t look much better to start 2023. Then all of a sudden, Williams vanished. He was there one week and fell off the grid. Mere weeks into the season, the defensive coordinator abruptly resigned from his position, forcing Eberflus to take over play-calling duties.
Speculation ran wild about what happened. Rumors swirled that Williams got into some personal trouble involving his computer at Halas Hall, forcing an internal investigation. Whatever it was turned out bad enough that he had to go. Williams chose to step down rather than suffer the humiliation of getting fired. After that, the story faded away. Well, now we may know what happened. Tyler Dunne of Go Long provided new details on the situation. It seems Williams got in really deep with an unnamed woman, who turned out to be far seedier than he expected.
A bad mistake on his part put the team at risk.
First, there was the peculiar case of Alan Williams. Fellow coaches noticed the team’s defensive coordinator acting strange during staff meetings on Sept. 12 of that season. He didn’t want to go home. The next day, Bears security searched his office. On Sept. 15, it was reported that Williams would not travel to the team’s game in Tampa Bay due to personal reasons. On Sept. 17, the Bears played the Buccaneers.
One day felt like a year as the Bears — waiting and waiting and waiting — inexplicably fueled curiosity into the mystery themselves. What did Williams do exactly?
One person involved with the fallout told us the Bears determined Williams, inside his office, engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior on his phone with a woman. “Between meetings. After practice. Before practice. All the time,” this source adds. The woman, we’re told, then tried to extort him — the Bears logo was in the background of one photo sent. This triggered an investigation and prolonged the situation. Internally, those involved with the crisis management found it strange that neither GM Ryan Poles or head coach Matt Eberflus were in charge of punishment. Final jurisdiction rested in the hands of Kevin Warren and, for whatever reason, the team president opted to slow-play the PR nightmare. Warren stressed the need to talk to the coach.
Alan Williams broke a cardinal rule.
You keep your business and personal lives separate. By involving his affair on team property, he opened them up to serious litigation and pubic embarrassment. The fact that he wasn’t aware of the danger he put himself in despite decades in the NFL tells you how bad it was. You never like to see somebody lose their job for something like that. Then again, the saying remains true.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
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Alan Williams has only himself to blame for what happened. The story no doubt made it across the rest of the NFL, which explains why he hasn’t found work since leaving. Teams don’t want anything to do with someone so irresponsible. It doesn’t help that the last memory of him was his defense getting trampled every week. Such a crazy story.