The Tampa Bay Buccaneers said they are going to be fining rookie wide receiver Mike Williams for his arrest last Friday morning. Williams was arrested on the suspicion of DUI. The 23-year old Williams tested below the legal limit of .08. The Bucs allowed Williams to play yesterday in their 21-0 victory at San Francisco. 


“We’ll be able to fine Mike Williams, and we are going to take a bunch of money from his pocket,” said Morris. “We are going to do a bunch of sit downs with his captains and his captains came to me and said they wanted to do a sit down with him, Jeff Faine and all those type of guys. It is a part of us growing up and it is a part of us cleaning up our process. It is a part of us as a whole team, every little thing counts, all kinds of incidents that happen every day that we handle internally. We talk about it all the time. We call it winning with lessons. This week is no different. We got another win this week. It is a great chance to go out and talk about lessons and learning through winning. That makes it easier for us."

Williams was held out of practice on Friday, but started against the 49ers on Sunday. Williams caught three passes for 54 yards, including a 33-yard reception. Williams also made an eight-yard touchdown reception. This season the rookie Williams has been the Buccaneers leading receiver. Williams has caught 43 passes for 681 yards and six touchdowns. Morris said that the team is pleased with Williams’ cooperation and explained why they are confident that Williams did not have any drugs in his system.

“We gave Mike our own independent test and we are very pleased with the results that we got from our own independent results,” said Morris. “He is completely clean. We’ll let the due process take its course. Law enforcement will take a little longer than we will because obviously we get our information a lot faster than anybody else can, but we’ll let due process take it but we’re completely confident that he’s completely clean. We’ll let our law enforcement do their due process because they do a great job of it.”

Bucs general manager Mark Dominik clarified that on Friday morning Williams voluntarily went to an independent agency to take a drug test so the Buccaneers would have faster results. Williams wanted to prove that he did not have any illegal substances in his body that impaired him at all. Williams had already voluntarily provided the police a urine sample and wanted to do the same thing for the Buccaneers organization. 

Morris said that Williams' fine would go to the Buccaneers community charity work but would not say how much Williams will be fined. The second-year head coach Morris teased that somebody could be driving a nice new car as a result of the fine.

Williams had suspensions and curfew violations during his collegiate career at Syracuse. The off the field issues caused Williams to fall to the fourth round of the 2010 NFL Draft. Buccaneers offensive coordinator Greg Olson said the team was disappointed that Williams was out so late the night before a practice.

“He was remorseful more than anything, he was very remorseful, which is a good sign,” said Olson. “He wasn’t full of excuses and that’s a good sign. I think it is obviously unfortunate that it happened. We are certainly disappointed that he would be out that late knowing that we had a big game and practice and as late in the week as it was we were disappointed in his actions there. Again, you look at his background and a lot of people are going to say that is part of his behavior. It has been issue. I addressed it. A couple of weeks ago I asked Mike how he is doing and what he is doing with his evenings. He assured me that he usually was in bed by 10:00 every night during the week.

“There was a family matter, a relative in town, but there is no excuse for any of our players to be out that late obviously the night before a practice. We don’t encourage that, but he was remorseful and apologetic. He apologized to the staff, the team, the organization, and the fans. We’ll put that behind us and it’ll be a learning experience.”