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The Best Explanation of Tom vs Rita/Renee

this is a discussion within the Saints Community Forum; A couple of archived articles explaining the chain of events. Sources: Berating assistants, often missing from work, Rita LeBlanc caused Tom Benson to worry | News | theadvocate.com Rita Benson LeBlanc confrontation with Gayle Benson at Saints game preceded change ...

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Old 03-24-2018, 08:07 AM   #1
 
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The Best Explanation of Tom vs Rita/Renee

A couple of archived articles explaining the chain of events.


Sources: Berating assistants, often missing from work, Rita LeBlanc caused Tom Benson to worry | News | theadvocate.com

Rita Benson LeBlanc confrontation with Gayle Benson at Saints game preceded change in succession plan, sources say | NOLA.com


Gayle Benson is a true New Orleanian. The team is safe in New Orleans so long as she is in charge. That's the way Tom Benson wanted it. We are blessed as Saints fans Tom Benson sought to pre-arrange matters in the event of his passing.
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Old 03-24-2018, 09:21 AM   #2
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Re: The Best Explanation of Tom vs Rita/Renee

Funny how Rita was the one, not Tom Benson, who appeared with Tagliabue, Fielkow and others to reassure Louisiana the Saints weren't leaving after Benson stated the Saints were now a Texas team...

Then there were all these news articles talking about her business acumen, her creativity in thinking out of the box in making the Voodoo such a success...

Then Gayle comes into the picture and then all of a sudden there's articles citing former/dismissed (bitter) employees dissing on Rita...

Then one by one they're dismissed - Arnie Felkow who openly questioned Benson about the move, ex-aide Rodney Henry who Gayle allegedly harassed racially, and his adopted daughter and her two kids...

And everyone that was in Benson's inner circle is now gone, his former personal assistant (whom Benson later referred to as "just a porter"); refusing to give him severance after Gayle insisted he also be dismissed (and won that case as he was paid through the Saints payroll and had to waive his employee rights to work for the Saints (should be illegal, non-binding))...

I'm not saying Rita was an angel, and I don't really want to dis on Benson in the two weeks of mourning, but there's been a lot of distortion of history during this tribute period of the facts by a compliant local media who want to stay in the good graces of team ownership, inner circle, VP of Communications Greg Bensel and there's a clear, coordinated shift that took place with regards to the public image of Benson's previous family and this, in my view, reminds me of some kind of Roman coup d'etat of the Saints and bears vigilance...

My late friend, Hagan and I often discussed this, even laughed at the hypocrisy of the local media in the 180s of Rita, Gayle et al public images...

It's not that my way is the right way, I just make the right way my way...

Last edited by jeanpierre; 03-24-2018 at 02:30 PM..
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Old 03-24-2018, 12:19 PM   #3
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Re: The Best Explanation of Tom vs Rita/Renee

I meant to quote jeanpierre above. The post is 100% correct. The only one printing the real deal is Jeff Duncan. Read his articles and he still talks about it. I happened to talk with SEVERAL high-level Saints employees, including players, when the team WAS moving to San Antonio and the distortion in these recent media articles is incredible. I even spoke with Rita Benson Leblanc about it myself at the time.
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Old 03-24-2018, 12:21 PM   #4
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Re: The Best Explanation of Tom vs Rita/Renee

Originally Posted by jeanpierre View Post
Funny how Rita was the one, not Tom Benson, who appeared with Tagliabue, Fielkow and others to reassure Louisiana the Saints weren't leaving after Benson stated the Saints were now a Texas team...

Then there were all these news articles talking about her business acumen, her creativity in thinking out of the box in making the Voodoo such a success...

Then Gayle comes into the picture and then all of a sudden there's articles citing former/dismissed (bitter) employees dissing on Rita...

Then one by one they're dismissed - Arnie Felkow who openly questioned Benson about the move, ex-aide Rodney Henry who Rita allegedly harassed racially, and his adopted daughter and her two kids...

And everyone that was in Benson's inner circle is now gone, his former personal assistant (whom Benson later referred to as "just a porter"); refusing to give him severance after Gayle insisted he also be dismissed (and won that case as he was paid through the Saints payroll and had to waive his employee rights to work for the Saints (should be illegal, non-binding))...

I'm not saying Rita was an angel, and I don't really want to dis on Benson in the two weeks of mourning, but there's been a lot of distortion of history during this tribute period of the facts by a compliant local media who want to stay in the good graces of team ownership, inner circle, VP of Communications Greg Bensel and there's a clear, coordinated shift that took place with regards to the public image of Benson's previous family and this, in my view, reminds me of some kind of Roman coup d'etat of the Saints and bears vigilance...

My late friend, Hagan and I often discussed this, even laughed at the hypocrisy of the local media in the 180s of Rita, Gayle et al public images...
This is 100% correct. The only one printing the real deal is Jeff Duncan. Read his articles and he still talks about it. I happened to talk with SEVERAL high-level Saints employees, including players, when the team WAS moving to San Antonio and the distortion in these recent media articles is incredible. I even spoke with Rita Benson Leblanc about it myself at the time.[/QUOTE]
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Old 03-27-2018, 02:38 PM   #5
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Re: The Best Explanation of Tom vs Rita/Renee

At one time I thought Rita was the Savior who helped keep the Saints in NO. As time went on it appears that I may have misjudged her. However, I don't know the details and if we continue as a family run enterprise with few changes then I'm fine with it. RIP Tom Benson.
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Old 03-27-2018, 10:47 PM   #6
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Re: The Best Explanation of Tom vs Rita/Renee

Originally Posted by jeanpierre View Post
Funny how Rita was the one, not Tom Benson, who appeared with Tagliabue, Fielkow and others to reassure Louisiana the Saints weren't leaving after Benson stated the Saints were now a Texas team...

Then there were all these news articles talking about her business acumen, her creativity in thinking out of the box in making the Voodoo such a success...

Then Gayle comes into the picture and then all of a sudden there's articles citing former/dismissed (bitter) employees dissing on Rita...

Then one by one they're dismissed - Arnie Felkow who openly questioned Benson about the move, ex-aide Rodney Henry who Gayle allegedly harassed racially, and his adopted daughter and her two kids...

And everyone that was in Benson's inner circle is now gone, his former personal assistant (whom Benson later referred to as "just a porter"); refusing to give him severance after Gayle insisted he also be dismissed (and won that case as he was paid through the Saints payroll and had to waive his employee rights to work for the Saints (should be illegal, non-binding))...

I'm not saying Rita was an angel, and I don't really want to dis on Benson in the two weeks of mourning, but there's been a lot of distortion of history during this tribute period of the facts by a compliant local media who want to stay in the good graces of team ownership, inner circle, VP of Communications Greg Bensel and there's a clear, coordinated shift that took place with regards to the public image of Benson's previous family and this, in my view, reminds me of some kind of Roman coup d'etat of the Saints and bears vigilance...

My late friend, Hagan and I often discussed this, even laughed at the hypocrisy of the local media in the 180s of Rita, Gayle et al public images...
The winners write the history.
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Old 03-28-2018, 11:54 AM   #7
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Re: The Best Explanation of Tom vs Rita/Renee

I thought it was Tagliabue who had major inluence in keeping the Saints in New Orleans.

How Paul Tagliabue and the NFL helped save the Saints and the Superdome | NOLA.com

"Question: When you got down here, you were very committed to playing a certain amount of games, at least half of the games in Louisiana. Why?

Tagliabue: "Well, I think right from Day One, when we had those meetings in early September with Sean O'Keefe and others, it was clear to me that we had to play a majority of the home games in Louisiana if we could, that there was a lot of symbolism attached to that. If all of sudden we were playing one or two games -- which would have been viewed as token -- in Louisiana and playing five or six games in San Antonio or anywhere else, people would have started to read very negative messages into that type of schedule. I felt it was critical that four of the seven (home games), one way or the other, had to be played in Louisiana. We came out of that meeting in September with that agreement in place."

Question: At the time, how confident were you that New Orleans could support the Saints? Were you receiving information that indicated the recovery was going in a positive direction, or were you strictly taking a leap of faith?

Tagliabue: I think you've got to separate the two things that you refer to. The first issue was keeping the team there. The second issue was could they be supported in the long term. While we were emphatic that the team was going to stay there, we had no idea whether they could be supported in the long term. But it was the right thing to do, so that's what we did."
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Old 03-31-2018, 01:37 PM   #8
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Re: The Best Explanation of Tom vs Rita/Renee

Originally Posted by Papa Voodoo View Post
I thought it was Tagliabue who had major inluence in keeping the Saints in New Orleans.

How Paul Tagliabue and the NFL helped save the Saints and the Superdome | NOLA.com
That picture of Benson expression says it all...

Rita was the face of the team post-Katrina - Benson couldn't even step out unattended after his intentions of relocating to San Antonio...

This is the link Xan had posted in Black and Gold...

Curiously the links to the NOLA.com and WWLTV.com stories are to lost locations now...

http://www.nola.com/sportsflash/sain...orylist=saints

http://www.wwltv.com/article/sports/....11855f9f.html

This was the WWLTV story...

Saints owner attacks WWL-TV camera

09:18 PM CST on Sunday, October 30, 2005

WWLTV.com

Saints owner Tom Benson lunged at an Eyewitness News camera, ripping off a microphone and then got into a shouting match with a fan upon leaving Tiger Stadium Sunday.

Mike Bland / WWL-TV

Saints owner Tom Benson lunges at the Channel 4 camera, knocking it down and causing a microphone to fall off the equipment. Benson also got into a verbal argument with a fan.

Video of the episode will be shown on Eyewitness News Sunday night at 10:22 p.m.

According to Eyewitness Sports? Lee Zurik, he and cameraman Mike Bland were in the press box with about five minutes to go when he saw Mr. Benson leaving the game.

Zurik and Bland went downstairs to get some video of Mr. Benson leaving and were ?7 to 10 feet from him? when Benson lunged and then swatted at the camera, ripping off a microphone that was attached.

Zurik said Benson then got into an argument with a fan and tried to lunge at him as well.

Benson has been publicly criticized for his apparent interest in moving the team to San Antonio full time. Though Benson has not said that he is interested in moving and he took out a full-page ad and ran television commercials this week stating his intention to return home, the mayor of San Antonio has been quoted as saying the Saints owner wants to relocate there.

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was at the game and Benson was scheduled to meet with Governor Kathleen Blanco.

It's not that my way is the right way, I just make the right way my way...
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Old 04-04-2018, 03:54 PM   #9
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Re: The Best Explanation of Tom vs Rita/Renee

Originally Posted by Utah_Saint View Post
The winners write the history.
Well, they do if good people don't call them on their BS...

Apparently WWL-TV.com is more interested in having a good relationship with Saints management than preserving their story, history...
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Old 04-04-2018, 05:50 PM   #10
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Re: The Best Explanation of Tom vs Rita/Renee

Ah.. Family
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