It was the Wednesday before Washington opened the 2006 “Monday Night Football” season against visiting Minnesota and former Redskins quarterback Brad Johnson. Assistant head coach/defense Gregg Williams knew about the bad blood between Redskins owner Dan Snyder and Johnson and decided to do something about it in the defensive meeting room.

“Gregg came in and dropped $15,000 on the (table) and said, ‘Brad Johnson doesn’t finish this game. This is Wednesday and the money will go up later in the week. It could double or triple by the end of the week,’ “one of the players recalled. “A couple of guys kinda got excited. (Defensive line coach) Greg Blache said, ‘If you get fined, it will be taken care of.’

A second Redskin, who also asked to remain anonymous, corroborated his teammate’s account.

“I can’t say for sure it was $15,000, but I definitely remember that happening before that Minnesota game,” the second player said. “And I can’t say for sure that those were G-Dub’s exact words about Brad Johnson, but that was certainly the message.  I had never heard anything like that before from a coach, but I wasn’t shocked because that was G-Dub’s character, so in your face. His language was always X-rated and our meetings were usually pretty nuts.”

The second player said that the Johnson theatrics weren’t a first in Washington for Williams, who has been suspended by the NFL for this season and perhaps beyond for offering bounties to his players to injure opponents as New Orleans’ coordinator from 2009-11.

“The same thing happened before our playoff game the year before against Seattle,” the player recalled. “Gregg wanted us to get (Seahawks MVP running back) Shaun Alexander. Now it happened that (linebacker LaVar Arrington) knocked Shaun out of the game, but he was just playing hard. Unless it’s a free shot at the quarterback, you have a really hard time trying to hurt a guy when you’re making a play on the ball.”

Besides, the player added, the veterans didn’t take Williams’ over-the-top tactics very seriously.

“We just wanted to go out and play hard,” he said. “We weren’t looking to injure a guy.  But Gregg’s one of the best defensive coaches in football and a great motivator. Players are very loyal to him. He probably had an effect on the young guys like (late safety) Sean Taylor, who he had drafted so high and who he really believed in.”

Since Williams’ bounties were only paid off after victories, Arrington wasn’t rewarded when the Redskins blew a 10-0 lead and lost to the eventual NFC champion Seahawks. And no one was paid after the loss to the Vikings either, a game in which Johnson was only sacked once and finished the game in the victory kneel formation.

The second player said that, unlike Saints coach Sean Payton, who has been suspended for 2012, Redskins coach Joe Gibbs was unaware of Williams’ prohibited inducements during their 2004-07 Washington tenure.