It seems like not that long ago, the Saints were the feel good story of the year. In the aftermath of the horrendous destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, despite government ineptitude and political promises that were never kept, somehow the Saints became a ray of hope for their community. The people desperately needed something -- anything -- good to happen in their lives, so they looked to the Saints to provide it. In turn, the Saints were equally eager to give it to them. Shortly thereafter, as we all know, Drew Brees led the Saints on a glorious march to the Super Bowl Championship. The town was delirious with joy and, I dare say, down deep, even fans of opposing teams were happy for them, on some level. They finally caught a break, and hurray for them.
But the halo disappeared with the recent "bounty" thing. Those are no longer merely allegations. Hard evidence has been brought to light, many have admitted their roles, and suspensions, fines, and other punishments have been handed down from the Commissioner's office. The players involved are still awaiting "sentencing", and that will likely be coming soon. While called the Saints, it appears they had a few devils amongst them in recent years. Close the book on the above-mentioned feel good story. It was over.
Now, new allegations have arisen claiming the Saints had somehow "bugged" their stadium, over a period of years, whereby they could listen in on the conversations of their football opponents. Front and center is one Mickey Loomis, the general manager of the Saints. Loomis was just recently suspended for several games in the upcoming season over his involvment with the bounty thing. He vehemently denies the current allegations, as do other Saints' spokespeople.
I hope Mick and the Saints are vindicated of this, because if it turns out to be true, the ramifications will make the bounty system look like swiping a lollipop from a candy store. Again, and I emphasize, IF this is eventually proven to have happened, it will absolutely explode on many levels, heretofore unknown in the history of sports.
Consider..... If the Saints had been "bugging" their opponents for years, that's not an isolated incident like the recent New England PatriotGate when they got busted for just filming, not listening, to an opposing team. They got hammered from the Commish. If true, the Saints will have gone way beyond "loss of institutional control", to the point of intentional corruption from the top down. Besides the obvious "cheating" factor, many would call into question the results of games in years past. Should they be forfeited? Should the Lombardi Trophy be taken away? It would be Roger Goodell's biggest nightmare. Handing down lifetime NFL bans for the culprits would be the easy part. But what would he do with Saints' owner Tom Benson? He was absolved as being unaware of the bounty system, but if this turns out to be true, did he not know about this either? If so, just what DOES he know about? As the owner, isn't he supposed to be ultimately responsible for what his employees do? Isn't the buck supposed to stop with him?
And that's just the football aspect of it. If these allegations turn out to be true, we're talking about illegal wire-tapping. That would be in violation of state and federal laws. Given the far reaching implications of such activities, the attorney general of Louisiana and the Justice Department might jump in. Congress could summon witnesses and hold another special session. The worst case scenario might result in subpoenas, juries, trials, and even eventual prison sentences. This could get very ugly.
The Saints won't come marching in. They'll be marching out.
I hope they didn't do it.
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