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Before Gregg Williams joined the Rams' staff, he was the Saints' defensive coordinator from 2009-11. This is notable for three reasons:

  1. Williams was part of the '09 team that won the Super Bowl;
  2. In March 2012, the NFL suspended Williams indefinitely for his role in Bountygate;
  3. On Sunday, Williams, who was reinstated by the league in 2013, returns to New Orleans for the first time since everything went down.

Despite that history, Williams is looking forward to it, even if he'd understandably like to put the scandal behind him.

"It's not about that, it's about these guys playing. ... It's not about me," he said, via ESPN.com's Mike Triplett. "I'm really looking forward to it, got a lot of great memories, a lot of good feelings, a lot of good people there that I still stay in contact with."

Williams' rosy disposition doesn't align with history; Saints coach Sean Payton let Williams' contract expire after the 2012 season because he didn't feel Williams didn't work well with others, according to Triplett, and quarterback Drew Brees described Williams at the time as "disgruntled."

But Brees opted for diplomacy this week ahead of Sunday's matchup.

"Obviously, that was a tough situation," the quarterback said. "The positive is Gregg Williams was our defensive coordinator from 2009, '10 and '11. We won a lot of football games together, and he did a great job here with that defense, and we share a Super Bowl together from that 2009 season. So I choose to look at that and I appreciate him for that.

"And as far as what's happened since then, I mean coaches go to different places. I think he's a very talented defensive football coach, and I know that his defense has played extremely well this season, especially the last four weeks. So I know that we'll need our best to beat them."

Payton also wasn't interested in dredging up the past.

"I think he's doing a great job," Payton said Wednesday, via the Los Angeles Times. "Really, when you follow his career as a defensive coordinator, he's always had good defenses - you watch what they're doing. In a short period of time, he's been able to turn around a number of teams' defenses."

As it stands, the Saints and Rams are 4-6, though due to tiebreakers New Orleans is currently 11th in the NFC while Los Angeles is 13th. Both teams need to find a way to get to nine wins in order to have a chance at a wild-card berth.