Report: HR Involved in Alan Williams Resignation
Small bits of the Alan Williams situation have come to light since his resignation more than a week after he had left Halas Hall.
On Sunday, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Williams resigned "because of inappropriate activity and the Bears HR was involved." He said there was no criminal activity.
Williams had been at Halas Hall on Wednesday morning before the game with Tampa Bay as late as 11 a.m., according to Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer. Then players were told he was away for personal reasons at that point. Matt Eberflus said he later told the players of the situation this week.
Eberflus has refused to comment on it. Players have followed suit, in fact saying they hadn't even been told of Williams' situation after they had been informed.
"I wouldn't read into that," Eberflus said. "It's personal. So people are respecting that and respecting space, I believe. That’s what I believe it is.
"It's no disrespect to the question, it's none of that. That’s where it is."
When asked if he'd ever been through something like this in the past during his career and if he was worried about how the team would react, Eberflus didn't seem shocked by it all.
"Yeah, I mean, a few things have happened like this," Eberflus said. "I'm not going to talk about the exact stuff but there's been a lot of things that have happened like this. You have different things happen personally, with your players, with your coaches during certain times.
"That's when you see real leadership. That's when you step up and go around and talk to everybody, visit with everybody, make sure everybody is squared away, make sure they understand the vision for the football team and where it's going. I think that's the most important thing you do. Me and Ryan, as soon as all this stuff started to go down, went boom, came together. What's going to be the vision for the week? How are we going to do this? It was lock step with ownership, with president. It was good. It was good the way we came together."
Eberflus said he had personal feelings toward Williams, after working with him since 2018 in Indianapolis. But he definitely wasn't going overboard about the emotional end of it.
"Yeah, I mean obviously I was with him four years, five years here," he said. "You know. I have uh, you know, a lot of, you know, friendship. I have feelings for him.
But, you know, and again, it's … he's resigned and you know it's for health and family and, and we'll see where it goes from there. And, you know, I have feelings for Alan Willams, of course."
In his statement issued to media after resigning, Williams said it wa to "...take care of my health and my family."
He seemed to think whatever the issue was, he would be back in the NFL as some point.
"I value the NFL shield and all that it stands for and after taking some time to address my health, I plan to come back and coach again," he wrote.
Eberflus is handling defensive coordinator duties for the second straight game Sunday against Kansas City.
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