On the day that members of the Saints' brass had their appeals heard for their roles in New Orleans' bounty system, damning audio was released of Gregg Williams, the man who orchestrated the program, instructing his players to injure San Francisco 49ers players in their wild-card playoff game last season.

Documentary filmmaker Sean Pamphilon, who directed the ESPN 30 for 30 film "Run Ricky Run," released Thursday an audio recording he says is a speech Williams, the team's former defensive coordinator, gave to New Orleans players the night before the team lost to the 49ers in a playoff game in January.

The sample audio recording is a little less than four minutes long. The full speech was 12 minutes, according to Pamphilon.

Pamphilon was following the Saints last season while working on a documentary featuring former Saints special-teams player Steve Gleason, who is battling Lou Gehrig's disease.

For his part, Gleason said in a statement Friday he was "deflated and disappointed" over the release of the audio and that he owned the rights to the tape and had not authorized its release.

Williams, who is suspended indefinitely by the league and is not appealing the penalty, can be heard in the audio recording instructing his defensive players to injure quarterback Alex Smith, running back Frank Gore, tight end Vernon Davis and receivers Michael Crabtree and Kyle Williams.

According to Pamphilon, Gregg Williams pointed to his chin while telling his players to hit Smith "right there," saying, "Remember me. I got the first one. I got the first one. Go get it. Go lay that m----------- out."

Williams uses one of his favorite slogans in the speech: "Kill the head and the body will die."

On Gore: "We've got to do everything in the world to make sure we kill Frank Gore's head. We want him running sideways. We want his head sideways."

On running back Kendall Hunter: "Little 32, we're going to knock the f--- out of him."

On Smith: "Every single one of you, before you get off the pile, affect the head. Early, affect the head. Continue, touch and hit the head."

On Kyle Williams: "We need to find out in the first two series of the game, that little wide receiver, No. 10, about his concussion. We need to f------ put a lick on him right now. He needs to decide. He needs to f------ decide."

On Crabtree: "We need to decide whether Crabtree wants to be a fake-ass prima donna, or he wants to be a tough guy. We need to find out. He becomes human when we f------ take out that outside ACL."

On Davis: "We need to decide how many times we can bull rush and and we can f------ put Vernon Davis' ankles over the pile."

Gleason, in a lengthy statement published on his website, teamgleason.org, expressed steadfast regret over the release of the audio.