"I thought, 'Did he just say that?' " Pamphilon said in an article posted Thursday. "That was the red flag for me."
Williams, who is suspended indefinitely for his admitted role overseeing a bounty system that offered Saints defenders payment for painful hits, did not respond to a phone message and email left with his foundation in Missouri on Thursday. It is not clear whether Pamphilon had earlier shared the recording with the NFL.
The recording was released hours before coach Sean Payton, general manager Mickey Loomis and assistant head coach Joe Vitt went to NFL headquarters in New York for an appeal hearing regarding their unprecedented punishments.
After Vitt's appeal was heard, his lawyer, David Cornwell, was asked about the audio tape. Cornwell said Payton viewed Williams' comments as "a rogue coach about to get fired."
Goodell spent 6 hours hearing appeals. He plans to make a decision quickly.
In other NFL news:
* Roger Goodell has sent a memo to all 32 teams threatening "significant discipline" to anyone caught leaking confidential information gathered on draft prospects to the public. The memo was sent on Wednesday night after reports that LSU defensive back Morris Claiborne allegedly scored poorly on the Wonderlic test.
* Former Dallas special-teams coach Joe Avezzano, whose wild sideline antics made him a fan favorite when the Cowboys won three Super Bowls in the 1990s, died Thursday in Italy at 68. Avezzano had moved to Milan earlier this year to coach an Italian Football League team, the Milan Seamen.
* Former Cincinnati wideout Jerome Simpson, now a free agent, was sentenced to 15 days in jail and 3 years' probation on a drug-related charge in Covington, Ky. Simpson pleaded guilty March 1 to the felony charge linked to a shipment of about 2 pounds of marijuana to his northern Kentucky home in September.
