The Mayans predicted it and we are seemingly living
it. The end of the world is quickly
approaching. Snooki is pregnant. Dick Clark, the king of New Years, has passed
on. World Peace is on the brink of
suspension after throwing a vicious elbow to the face and beard of James
Harden. And now, the Saints are accused
of major NFL sin, again!
First it was Bountygate, which got head coach Sean Payton a yearlong
boot from the Saint’s sideline.
Sanctions also included interim head coach Joe Vitt getting a 6 game
suspension and left the team looking for an interim interim head coach. GM Mickey Loomis got handed an 8 game suspension.
Former defensive coordinator Gregg
Williams is suspended indefinitely and facing an uphill battle to be allowed to
coach again. The team was also fined
half a million dollars and players wait to hear their fate.
The Saints have since moved on, believe it or not, but not
to any better of a place. Now, GM Mickey
Loomis is facing allegations of bugging opposing teams between 2002 and
2004. Putting them somewhere between
Watergate and Spygate, the Saints are once again in damage control mode. The team maintains that the reports are “1,000%
inaccurate” (we will ignore the impossibility of that statement).
Of course, Bountygate was bad, but NFL Watergate is just as
bad. We are talking about the integrity
of the game being put into serious question.
The competitive advantage that the eavesdropping could have provided is
said to be minimal, if any, which raises my personal question, why do it? Yes it is bad to cheat and steal other team’s
plays by bugging their lines of communication but at least there is a
reason. Mickey Loomis’s latest offense
seems to have little purpose or application which just makes me wonder why he
would ever put the team in harm’s way like this.
Who knows what is going to come out of this for Loomis. Maybe criminal charges. Maybe more punishment from the league. What is definite though is that every move
the Saints make for now on will face intense scrutiny. The Saints now face a slippery uphill slope
in rebuilding their image and brand. Making
Drew Brees happy again would be a great start to rebuilding a damaged
brand. We have all seen what he has done
for the city of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina struck.
Unfortunately for now, the Saints have gone from “Who Dat?”
to “Who Done It?”.
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