saintz08

BATON ROUGE SAINTS A DONE DEAL



Amid reports that the NFL plans to consider Baton Rouge as the 2006 "home" for the New Orleans Saints, a league source tells us that the team's short term move north to the LSU campus is already a "done deal."



Though owner Tom Benson initially intended to use the damage from Hurricane Katrina as a pretext to move the franchise out of Louisiana, the league successfully has persuaded him to abandon plans to try to finagle a permanent move to San Antonio or Los Angeles. The league office, we hear, doesn't think very highly of Benson, and the league has no desire to see Benson owning a team in the lucrative L.A. market.



So all is not peaches and cream between the Saints and the league office. To complicate matters, the Saints believe that the NFL should be doing something/anything to help players who are faced with paying for living arrangements in San Antonio while at the same time making mortgage payments on property owned in and around New Orleans.



The league has raised plenty of money for displaced Gulf Coast residents, but it has done nothing at all for the guys who play football for the New Orleans franchise. Benson would like to do more for the players himself, but he faces the reality of such payments or other benefits counting against the team's salary cap.



With all of the extra money that Benson undoubtedly will earn by playing home games before big crowds in New York, San Antonio, and Baton Rouge this year, it's not a question of whether the money is there. At a minimum, the league should allow Benson to help out his players without incurring cap charges.


NFL WOULD LIKE TO DUMP BENSON



In response to our Tuesday night story regarding the tension that currently exists between the NFL and Saints owner Tom Benson, a league source tells us that the hard feelings are rooted in the reality that more than a few owners would like to eject Benson from the Billionaire Boys Club.



"Many other owners can't stand Benson," the source said. "They don't think that he is good for the future of the NFL, and they just don't like him."



Since there is no quick and easy mechanism for forcing an owner out of the league, it's possible that the NFL's official stance regarding various current issues relating to the team are intended to gradually increase Benson's frustration level in the hopes that he eventually cashes in his chips.



The problem, though, is that if the NFL makes life so miserable for Benson that he wants out, the league will need to find a buyer who is willing to keep the team in New Orleans. The league, we're told, simply will not risk the public relations nightmare that would unfold if the Saints go marching out of the Bayou.

http://www.profootballtalk.com/rumormill.htm