Originally posted by: cubby1223
And let's just conveniently forget that the Saints will likely be moving to San Antonio or Los Angeles in the next few years.
You did not just go there.
But just so that I don't look like I'm side-stepping the issue:
When Tagliabue and Benson met after the storm, Tags told Benson that he's not moving the team for a while---end of discussion. A few reasons:
1) As long as the Katrina remains in the minds of people, moving the Saints would be a P.R. nightmare for the NFL. And now that we're doing so well, it's not going away anytime soon.
2) He's not moving to San Antonio, because that's Jerry Jones' territory. He would never allow it. It's bad enough for him that a team keeps springing up in Houston... a third team would be intolerable for him.
3) He's not moving to Los Angeles, because if there's one owner other than Al Davis that the NFL doesn't want to have that lucrative market, it's Tom Benson.
4) When he croaks, Tom Benson wants to leave the team to his granddaughter, Rita Benson-LeBlanc, already a co-owner and executive. I don't see her as one to want to move the team out of here ("LeBlanc" is a good coonass last name, so she must have family ties to south Louisiana), given how much she interacts with fans. I mean, she even pops up on the sports radio talk shows every once in a while (IIRC). If this is all just a ruse (and I don't think it is), then she is the most cutthroat businessperson I have ever seen---and that's saying a lot considering we're talking about the same family as Tom Benson. (You don't want me to go into some of the unscrupulous practices my father accuses Benson of doing with his automobile dealerships.)
Anyway, Goddell is a Tagliabue guy, so I don't see any reason such policies won't continue.
Now, can we please return to discussion of the upcoming game?