daviddrake2

This commentary was pubklished in the Lafayette Daily Advertiser on August 21st. I think it makes some valid points.

"BATON ROUGE - How fitting it was that New Orleans Saints general (mis-) manager Mickey Loomis and director of (lack of) player personnel Rick Mueller were at Emeril's restaurant in New Orleans the night before the Saints' world changed last April.

The owner of the restaurant had recently burnt the city that helped make him a national food star by saying it could never come back - reportedly. And Loomis and many with the Saints, including coaches and players, never wanted to come back to New Orleans after they followed disloyal owner Tom Benson to San Antonio mere days after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans. Abandoned refrigerators with the words, "Tom Benson's in here," were seen around the city more than Anderson Cooper.

So there they are at Emeril's on the eve of the NFL Draft when Mueller's cellular phone lights up. Houston had decided to take Mario Williams with the first pick, leaving USC star tailback Reggie Bush for the Saints at No. 2. Not even Loomis and Mueller could blow this pick as they have so many others.

They took Bush and the initial stage of the reconstruction of the Saints - headed by outgoing NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, not Benson and Loomis - was complete.

The New Look Saints play their first game of 2006 in what is supposed to be their home state tonight in Shreveport on Monday Night Football against the Dallas Cowboys, who have always had more fans in Shreveport than the Saints do. That should tell you something about how bad the Saints' marketing has been.

Wouldn't it have made sense, Mr. Benson, to train at Louisiana Tech or UL Monroe instead of Jackson, Miss.? Wouldn't it have been a nice gesture for a state from which you bilk millions of dollars a year from in corporate welfare?

Tagliabue has tried to assist in this area. Early this year, he got sports marketing expert Frank Vuono to become a consultant for the Saints, which had been damaged in the marketing area long before Katrina.

Tagliabue appointed a committee of NFL owners to look into the Saints' problems. He called on Pittsburgh Steelers owner Daniel Rooney, who is an owner who cares about his community and state and is not always threatening them with moves and who would not flee after a tragedy a few days after a killer storm.

Tagliabue tapped former Miami Dolphins president Eddie Jones as a consultant. Tagliabue probably had a little to do with Loomis hiring head coach Sean Payton, an excellent candidate who surely was hot enough to find a better organization for which to work. I saw Tagliabue huddled with Payton telling him what to say at that press conference the Saints held at their facility on Feb. 14 to celebrate the team's return and Benson's sudden memory loss of his failed move to San Antonio.

Tagliabue's been running this team, folks. Payton helped lead the Saints to free agent quarterback Drew Brees, who is restoring an old home in the garden district of New Orleans. I don't think Brees is going to want to move to San Antonio.

It is Tagliabue who made Benson leave San Antonio, where Benson shamelessly flirted with mayor Phil Hardberger about moving his team while bodies were still being found back home.
This angered Tagliabue. At the first Saints game in Louisiana after Katrina against the Dolphins in Tiger Stadium on Oct. 30, Tagliabue took a shot at Benson.

"Each team in the NFL is franchised to represent a specific community," Tagliabue said. "Teams are not franchised as free agents to run around the country and play wherever they want to play."

That's what Terrell Owens does. Now, he'd get along with Benson. Perhaps they could share a refrigerator.

Tagliabue, a skilled attorney before he was a skilled commissioner, also criticized the uniquely unfair deal Benson sold to the state of Louisiana in 2001 with one of his many threats to leave. No pro team anywhere has a better deal as it is getting more than $180 million of incentive free welfare over 10 years just to stay put. The Saints are 35-45 since the deal went into effect with no playoff appearances.

"Flawed," was how Tagliabue termed the agreement. "Governments don't buy tickets to football games, people do. The business community does."

Tagliabue met multiple times with New Orleans business leaders early this year in order to help the franchise help itself. It seems like Benson would have been doing more of that over the years instead of holding one hand out to the state with the keys to a moving van in the other. And by the way, Benson by contract received only a prorated $3 million from the state this year as opposed to the usual $15 million because the state-owned dome damaged by Katrina did not get to host any games in 2005. Yet Benson will pay some $90 million to Brees and Bush. It sounds like he's got money.

So, welcome back to Louisiana, Tom. I like your new team. Don't know why you brought Loomis and Mueller back. They were co-authors of that 35-45 mark since 2001, but considering the moves the team has made lately, Payton must be running things.
Payton seems pretty sharp. That was a good idea, taking the team to a water park. Former coach Jim Haslett, whom you let stick around way too long, would've taken them to a strip joint.

Maybe you accidentally got something here in Payton and Brees and Bush, Mr. Benson. This could be a fun season. But we haven't forgotten what you did and tried to do and how you lied last season.

So, could you stay in the refrigerator this season?"


Now here's a question, Would the SAINTS be better off without Loomis and Mueller?

Go SAINTS!!!!!

David in Houston

D_it_up

Any brain dead bum off the street who knows ziltch about football could've made the pick of Reggie Bush when the Texans botched it. I do not respect Benson, Mueller, or Loomis at all. Benson needs to sell to a local investor who will keep the team in the state, and he needs to completely clean house in the front office.

wheelman

^ I'll make sure to do that after I win the next record-breaking-Powerball-jackpot, D. :P

D_it_up

Well if you do, wheelman. I want a job as PR director or director of player personnel. HAHA!

SCSaintsFan

Mueller/Loomis are decent for the non-football part of the organization. If there is a good football guy in charge, then they are assets. When Randy was in charge, I think they fillled their rolls well. However, they can't do Randy's job or Jim Finks. Just get us a REAL GM and let him either keep them, or put them in their place.

AND YES GET RID OF BENSON. Sell to Terry Bradshaw and company. Or, perhaps we could put together something like GB did and own them locally. Other than the problem with NO and LA politics!

foreverfan

Loomis does manage the cap well. Can we keep him and get rid of the other guy?

Training in Northern LA doesn't make since. How does this help us sell tickets? Bringing MS into the mix allows us to generate interest from another state and has helped lead to a sell out of all the games this year.

Oh yea... Thank You Paul T. Without your guideance, god knows where the Saints would be playing.