Unsightly, Un-Saintly

[Ed. Note - As always, we cover the world's major sporting events like no other outlet. In that spirit, please enjoy our coverage of Super Bowl LIX, starting with this heartwarming tale from our Man in the Sand.]

In the realm of inconvenient news, the New Orleans Saints email dump is a dandy little listeria outbreak next to the food tent at the county fair. As the NFL and a sizeable chunk of the sports media world descended on the Crescent City for the Super Bowl, it was revealed that the Saints’ front office worked closely with the city’s Catholic church to minimize damage from a scandal involving predatory priests. Team officials regularly counseled church hierarchy on public relations efforts and were far more involved than they previously admitted, according to internal emails obtained by the Associated Press. 

The scandal came to light in 2018 when the Archdiocese of New Orleans released a list of priests accused of sexual abuse after hundreds of claims of molestation, many among minors and children, that stretched back decades. The AP first reported in 2020 that Saints’ officials had advised the archdiocese, but owner Gayle Benson denied that anyone associated with the franchise “made recommendations or had input” on the list of identified priests and had only minimal involvement. 

The Saints’ internal emails, however, reveal a year-long effort that included the names of priests on the list before they were made public, and the team president provided talking points and a list of questions that Archbishop Gregory Aymond should expect from reporters. Also, the team’s communications vice president regularly provided updates to his bosses about church business and interviews. He called in favors with local media and urged media members to “work with” the church during the scandal, while signaling that team and church leaders were aligned. 

After the AP’s current report, the Saints released a lengthy statement that criticized the media for using “leaked emails for the purpose of misconstruing a well-intended effort.” No one within the Saints’ organization condones or wants to cover up the abuse that occurred, the statement said, and any perceived partnership between the team and archdiocese no longer exists. Translation: You nosy snoops are being unfair to us about something that happened waaaaay back in the last decade. 

NFL commish Roger Goodell earlier this week essentially sidestepped the issue when asked about the report and the Saints’ more extensive role in the fallout of the scandal. He said that Benson and the Saints are very involved in the community and “great corporate citizens.” He mentioned Benson’s Catholic faith and deep church connections (Aymond introduced Benson to her husband and the team’s longtime owner, the late Tom Benson, and has been a frequent guest in the locker room and on the owners’ private jet).

 

Goodell said the matter was up to the FBI and local and national law enforcement, and he praised Benson’s transparency concerning the emails. “I leave it to (the Saints), but I am confident that they are playing nothing more than a supportive role to help be more transparent in circumstances like this.” 

Amid the remarks about transparency, he omitted the part where the Saints went to court to prevent their emails from becoming public. NFL teams engage in public relations in their sleep and forever attempt to finesse and manipulate the populace and its representatives – publicly financed stadia, tax breaks, sponsorships, media rights, broadcasting, licensing, merchandise. Some we see, much we don’t. It’s probably an upset that more ill-considered, if not disgusting, decisions and activities don’t come to light. 

The combination of great piles of money and civic adulation mostly keeps the expensive suits pointed in the same direction and minimizes boardroom pie fights. It’s reprehensible for an NFL franchise to help massage the image of an organization that covered up a sex abuse scandal it was aware of for years, but you knew this is how it would be dealt with. Goodell is nominally the commissioner, but the truth is that he works for the owners, and he isn’t about to say or do anything that might rankle the billionaires without permission. A largely compliant media will nibble around the edges of unpleasant topics but prefers to focus on things such as a Chiefs’ three-peat or The Legend of Saquon. 

In a just society, the Saints would be punished and vilified and held up as an object lesson in how not to behave. Instead, they’re lauded as “great corporate citizens” trying to lend support and beneficiaries of the notion that wealthy organizations must be protected and are more important than people. An NFL franchise and the Catholic church is one hell of a tag team. Would that either actually lived up to the image they project.