The decision was made to close out the regular season by kneeling out the remainder of the clock on a 41-17 win against a bitter division rival. The 11 New Orleans Saints players on the field just had a difference of opinion, and they also had the power to act.
After Tyrann Mathieu intercepted Atlanta Falcons backup quarterback Logan Woodside and returned the ball to the 1-yard line with 1:13 remaining, the Saints offense lined up in the victory formation with Jameis Winston under center. Instead of taking a knee, Winston took the snap and handed the ball off to Jamaal Williams, who plunged in for a 1-yard touchdown.
“We made a collective decision that we wanted to get one of our guys who they fight with — blood, sweat and tears, every game — in the end zone,” Winston said. “And I’m going to feel good about that.”
The play was ultimately meaningless relative to the final outcome of a game that had long been decided, but there was meaning behind how the players reached the decision to take matters into their own hands, and that spawned plenty of interesting conversation in the minutes that followed the game.
Falcons coach Arthur Smith was clearly not a fan. He angrily walked toward Saints coach Dennis Allen after the game and skipped the customary handshake, instead choosing to give Allen a piece of his mind.
Smith kept his comments to himself in his postgame news conference, opting to take the diplomatic route with the press.
"They can do whatever they want,” Smith said. “There are no rules against it. Like I said, we didn't stop them in the second half, and they can do what they want. It is what it is. Hats off to them, they kicked our you-know-what in the second half and made us pay. That's their prerogative. It's also my prerogative to tell them how I feel. Whether people like that or not, oh well. Credit to them. They can do what they want there."
After the game, Allen led his opening remarks by apologizing to Smith and the Falcons organization.
“That was not a play that we intended to run down there to finish off the game,” Allen said. “That’s not who we are. That’s not how we operate. We should have taken a knee, so I want to apologize to them. We have a good rivalry, and it’s a heated rivalry, but there’s a way we go about doing our business. I wasn’t happy about that.”
Allen went on to say the freelancing by the players on the field was “not acceptable.”
But the players felt strongly about getting Williams into the end zone — strong enough to disregard the decision the coaches made and go at it on their own.
To a man, the players on the field said they reached a collective decision to give Williams the ball in that situation because of what he’s meant to the team this season.
Some context: Williams joined the Saints as a free agent this spring after turning in a career year in Detroit last season. He recorded his first career 1,000-yard rushing campaign and led the NFL with 17 rushing touchdowns.
He did not recreate that success in New Orleans. Prior to that play, he’d gone the entire season without a rushing touchdown, and he finished the season averaging less than three yards per carry.
But he’d contributed in so many other, unseen ways that the players on the field felt he deserved a chance for some shine.
“I’ll just say this: The intention was never to be disrespectful,” center Erik McCoy said. “That was never the intention. I understand them being pissed off, that makes sense. But for us, it was about getting one of the most selfless players in our locker room — that essentially moved to fullback when Adam Prentice went down and is going through blocking linebackers, busting his ass for this team since the day he got here and came in with a positive attitude — a touchdown.
“... He’s a guy that deserved it. It wasn’t about them, it wasn’t about being disrespectful, it was about our teammate. And it was a collective, all 11, like, this guy deserves this. And if it wasn’t a collective, then we wouldn’t have done it.”
Right guard Cesar Ruiz offered an almost identical summary, adding that he “just wouldn’t be able to go to sleep at night knowing I didn’t get him (a touchdown).”
For Williams’ part, he said he would have been fine with the kneeldown to end the game. But he was moved by his teammates’ willingness to essentially disobey the directive from the head coach in order to get him in the end zone.
“I appreciate my teammates more than anything,” Williams said. “They see what I go through, what I’ve been going through this whole year. Trying to help the team in anyway I can. I appreciate them for getting me a touchdown.”
Winston said afterward that he understood why Smith and Allen felt the way they did, and he even went as far as apologizing to Allen for changing the play that was called. But he also took a bit of an issue with the idea of the play being disrespectful.
“Man, we got an interception to the 1-yard line. You know? So if we would’ve scored, would it have still been disrespectful?” Winston said. “... When you return the ball to the 1-yard line, you have the opportunity. We just had that opportunity and we decided.”
