Glanville insists bounties weren’t part of his act

With all this scrutiny on the bounty, a familiar name comes up — one well known by University of Hawaii football fans.

Jerry Glanville.

In 2005, the colorful former NFL coach joined the UH staff as defensive coordinator for his former offensive coordinator, June Jones.

Glanville arrived in Manoa with a rogue cowboy aura, including accusations that as the Houston Oilers head coach in the 1980s he put bounties on opposing players — similar, but perhaps not as widespread and systematic as the program of extra pay for knocking out offensive players that has gotten the New Orleans Saints into so much trouble with the league office.

Gregg Williams is the current Rams and former Saints and Redskins assistant and Bills head coach who was suspended indefinitely this week as the central figure in the league’s investigation. He just missed crossing paths in Houston with Glanville, who went on to be the Atlanta Falcons head coach for four seasons in 1990.

Ex-Oilers who played for Glanville said there was no bounty program.

“Jerry did things like give an Army helmet or a T-shirt to the special teams player for getting in a big lick, but there was never money involved,” linebacker Frank Bush told the Houston Chronicle this month. “It was about pride and doing your job the way they wanted you to. It’s the way we were taught to play a physical game.”

But David Toloumu, the former UH star who played special teams under Glanville with the Falcons in 1982, texted me that “there was a jar in the locker room and Jerry put $100 in it for the (special teams) hit of the game.”

Steelers coach Chuck Noll said that in the 1980s the Oilers were the dirtiest team in the league. And Saints kicker Morten Andersen recently told the New Orleans Times-Picayune he was targeted for a big hit on the opening kickoff against the Oilers in 1987 that knocked him out of the game with a concussion and a separated shoulder. He said he confronted Glanville about it, but Glanville denied bad intent.

Maybe there’s some gray area here, and Glanville never directly told players he’d give them money for deliberately injuring an opposing player — which is what seems to be the crux of what has become known as Bountygate.

But the reputation and the claims follow Glanville, who was set to coach the UFL’s Hartford Colonials last year before the team shut down operations before his first game. He told me Thursday he’s looking for a job.

Glanville also vehemently denied issuing bounties at any time in his coaching career — or even being aware of their existence anywhere.

“I hadn’t thought about it. I’ll let them (the NFL) solve those problems,” he said in a phone interview. “I’d never known of it. I have no knowledge of it ever being done. I’m pleading ignorance.”

When I then mentioned his name being associated with bounties in newspaper articles, specifically the Andersen incident, Glanville replied, “I’ve never been accused of this, and I resent you bringing it up. I’m through talking to you about it. Bye.”

What happened or didn’t happen a quarter-century ago in the NFL depends on whom you believe. But I am certain there were no bounties on UH’s opponents when Glanville was here in 2005 and 2006.

Why? Because if there were, receiver Ian Sample would’ve have written about it in his book, “Once A Warrior,” where he alleged other things, like not-so-random drug tests and rampant partying. (College football players partying? Shocking!) Also, defensive tackle and team captain Mike Lafaele, one of the most honorable people I know, insists they didn’t exist.

“Never,” Lafaele said. “(Glanville) was all about 11 guys getting to the ball fast and hitting hard. If anything, you’d get yelled at in the film room for not doing that. If you could put people out of the game by hitting them legally and hard, that’s the game of football. But we weren’t intentionally trying to injure anyone.”

Jeff Reinebold was Glanville’s defensive line coach and shared an office with him the two years he was at UH. He also said there were never bounties at UH, and Glanville never mentioned anything of the sort from his NFL coaching days.

“The person and the persona are two different things,” Reinebold said. “The person, the man I know loves the players and respects the game. I know the man and the man I know would never do anything like that.”