Saints & Sinner

I'm going to stick with the sports theme here, seems to be a good one this week...

I really used to like Tom Benson. He seemed to be really proud to be a New Orleanian, and part of the Saints franchise. Seems like that may have just been part of his umbrella pumping, bead throwing sideline act though, as it seems he is trying to move the Saints to San Antonio permanently.

Some days I tend to get a bit down on my fellow man, especially when it's someone I used to respect, and today I am down on Benson. That city, as broken as it is right now, needs that team. It is the only thing that most of those people have to hold onto anymore. Shame on him for selling out to the almighty dollar. I just am very dissapointed. Sometimes it's more than just the money, it's integrity.

Mayor Nagin blasts Saints owner for trying to move team

NEW ORLEANS -- Mayor Ray Nagin disparaged Saints owner Tom Benson on Wednesday for working with San Antonio officials to permanently keep the NFL team in Texas.

The mayor's comments came after the departures of two top Saints executives who were supportive of keeping the Saints in Louisiana. Nagin is concerned that San Antonio officials said publicly that Benson is working with them to relocate the franchise to Texas.

"We want our Saints, we may not want the owner back," Nagin said while attending the reopening of Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter.

"I'm ready to go to the NFL and to [commissioner Paul] Tagliabue and say, 'Give us the Cleveland plan,'" Nagin added, referring to the league awarding Cleveland an expansion team almost immediately after the Browns moved to Baltimore after the 1995 season. "Whatever the Saints want to do, you let them leave, but they can't take our logo, they can't take our name, and you give us a promise to give us a franchise when this city's back."

A Saints spokesman did not return a telephone call and e-mail seeking a response to Nagin's comments.

"For them to be openly talking to other cities about moving is disrespectful to the citizens of New Orleans, disrespectful to the Saints fans who have hung in with this franchise through 30-something years under very trying times," Nagin said.

The Saints joined the NFL in 1967. In 1986, Benson was part of an ownership group that bought the team to ensure it would stay in Louisiana. Benson eventually bought out other members of the group.

During Benson's ownership, the state of Louisiana has built him a new headquarters, including spending $6.75 million for an indoor practice field in 2003. The state also has paid for repeated improvements to the Louisiana Superdome at Benson's insistence during the past two decades.

On Monday night, Benson fired Arnold Fielkow, the team's top business executive since 2000. Fielkow had overseen a 36-game sellout streak at the Superdome and negotiated an unprecedented stadium lease that called for the state to pay Benson $187 million in direct subsidies over 10 years.

But Fielkow has said he believed the Saints needed to be leaders in New Orleans' rebuilding process after Hurricane Katrina and repeatedly praised Saints fans in Louisiana as the best and most loyal in the NFL. Fielkow has since said that stance led to his dismissal.

On Tuesday, Conrad Kowal, senior director of marketing and business development, also resigned.

Nagin called Benson's recent actions a "doggone shame."