SaintsBro

Well 626 you have lost me on believing in your theory, my friend, because there is no indication AT ALL in the record that the Saints were being investigated prior to the spring of 2010 after the NFC Championship. It ALL started with the playoffs and with the Vikings whining about the Championship game, not before. Every single source agrees on this: the players, the media, the lawyers, the NFL itself.

Re-read the NY Times article you just linked to and quoted from:

The investigation, led by the N.F.L.’s vice president for security, Jeffrey Miller, the former commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, began in 2010, when an unnamed player accused the Saints of targeting opponents, including Favre and Kurt Warner, who as quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals briefly left a playoff game against the Saints after taking a hard hit. That player retracted the allegation, which could not be corroborated at the time, but the investigation was revived in the latter part of the 2011 season when the N.F.L. received what it called significant and credible new information."

The "before the playoffs" you mention refers to the 2011 season, when they came to Benson circa the Lions game, not the playoffs of the 2009-10 season. That's why it was "new information" as opposed to just "information" -- this was round II of the investigation, after they had "told the Saints to stop" in early 2010 but supposedly they/Loomis (really Gregg Williams) didn't.

There was no "announcement" of the original investigation in 2010, no one knew in the public about it, at all, until much much later. In 2010 there was just some grumbling from Childress in an interview and Kluwe whining about it on the radio and the pictures of Favre's hip or thigh or whatever it was, posted on the internet.

I like that you are thinking critically about it and trying to piece it together, but your timeline is just off -- none of this was going on in regards to the Saints before the Vikings game, earlier in the 2009 season, none of it regarding the Saints. The 2009 congressional hearing on concussions that spooked Goodell so bad, were in LATE October of 2009.

I actually agree with you, that Benson is kind of holding his tongue, and sitting on the fence a little bit, in regards to the concussion thing. But I don't think it's nearly as sinister as you guys think it is. I think it is other reasons -- namely, he is hosting a Super Bowl in a couple months and can't say anything too bad or fight back too hard until that's over.

Also, one last thing -- there is no mystery or conspiracy why the Freeh Report has not been released -- it has not been finished yet. It could take a while. The Penn State one he did, took like six months and included formal interviews with hundreds of people. It's only been 4-5 months, so give the man some time.