When documentary filmmaker Sean Pamphilon visited NFL headquarters three weeks ago to play a much-publicized Gregg Williams audiotape, league security officials were particularly interested in a sequence in which the former New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator announced $200 rewards for "whack" hits by cornerback Roman Harper and linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar in last January's playoff victory over the Detroit Lions, Yahoo! Sports has learned.





While a league source said Dunbar, who has since signed with the St. Louis Rams, and Harper are unlikely to be subjected to disciplinary measures, the revelation was considered significant because the league viewed it as additional evidence of a bounty system that was the focus of a three-year investigation.

However, two NFL Players Association sources strongly disputed that characterization, defining a "whack" hit as a forceful yet clean and legal play by a defender, and thus a "pay-for-performance" issue that is a far less severe violation of league rules.

"A 'whack' hit isn't a hit that injures a player," insisted one defender who played for the Saints during Williams' three-year tenure as coordinator. "It's the equivalent of a 'pancake' for an offensive lineman – a clean hit that knocks a defender on his ass. Everyone who knows Gregg knows what that means."

Last January, on the night before the Saints' playoff defeat to the 49ers in San Francisco, Pamphilon attended the New Orleans' defensive team meeting at the team's hotel. The filmmaker was working on a documentary featuring retired Saints special-teams hero Steve Gleason, who is suffering from ALS and attended the meeting as a guest of the franchise.

[ Related: Scott Fujita says Gregg Williams comments 'highly inappropriate' ]

When Pamphilon sent a copy of his audio recording of Williams' speech to Y! Sports in April, fueling the public uproar in the wake of the bounty scandal, the names and uniform numbers of Dunbar, Harper and other players were obscured in an effort to protect them from potential league discipline.

Pamphilon, as he revealed in a recent essay on his website, had consulted with Saints quarterback Drew Brees and Browns linebacker Scott Fujita – both members of the NFLPA's executive committee – before releasing the audio. He had also arranged, at Fujita's request, for the tape to be played for union officials.

While NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith and other union leaders weren't opposed to Pamphilon releasing the audio, and believed it would help them defend players (including ex-Saints defender Fujita) facing potential NFL discipline by marginalizing Williams as an out-of-control coach, the timing turned out to be incendiary: The Y! Sports story broke just hours before Payton, general manager Mickey Loomis and assistant head coach Joe Vitt arrived at league headquarters to appeal their lengthy suspensions to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. (Williams, who had since been hired as the St. Louis Rams' defensive coordinator, did not appeal his indefinite suspension, which is expected to last at least through the 2012 season.)

In the week leading up to the coaches' appeal hearing, the NFLPA, according to two knowledgeable sources, had reached out to Payton and had privately discussed the case with the suspended coach. In those discussions Payton, according to one of the sources, encouraged the union to advise players under investigation to answer questions from league officials truthfully.

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