I guess I’m more willing to cut Mickey some slack on this. Here’s why: we won the Super Bowl! I’m not saying the end justifies the means. It never does. In fact, this Vicodin scandal happened long before the season started and doesn’t appear to have had any influence on what the team accomplished. The reason I say this is because I think Mickey was so focused on putting together and keeping together a championship-winning team that he didn’t see the possible severity and legal consequences of Vitt taking Vicodin from the team cabinet at the time it happened. So, he brushed it aside in an attempt to not disrupt what the team was preparing to do. It worked. We finally have a Lombardi trophy.

As for Payton’s involvement, nothing definite has been proven yet. There’s no video of him taking the pills from the cabinet or using them without a prescription. There’s just Santini’s allegations, which may or may not be true. I’m not so willing just yet to believe him and his lawyer. We’ll have to wait and see how this case plays out. I’m thinking that Vitt may be in trouble either legally or with the league and that Payton will emerge relatively cleared of any wrongdoing.

If Mickey did try to keep this under wraps when he shouldn’t have, then I guess he’ll have to face whatever consequences that brings. I’m thinking it won’t be as bad as some are making it out to be (Florio, GAAA!) If he is guilty of wrongdoing, it won’t be the worst case of a GM or CEO ignoring something or keeping things quiet. Wrongdoing far worse than this happens all the time on Wall Street and in Corporate America. Just look at BP and the current crisis in the Gulf. That’s just the most recent example. Goldman Sachs? Enron? What Mickey might have done isn’t even close to what these people did. I know that no one is suggesting it is at this point and I hope it stays that way. Given the recent success of the team, it could get blown up all out of proportion and become a distraction that lasts throughout the upcoming season. I guess that’s what I fear the most.

It is interesting that the Saints and the Jazz Fest are intertwined just a bit in this fiasco of bad calls by the Saints that have woken up in a way the frustrated screams of the franchise’s “glory days” of one- and two-win seasons and fumbles from the opponents’ 1-yard line back to the 50 (versus Chicago in 1973 in Tulane Stadium).

It was from Jazz Fest XLII last April 30 that one of the myriad of attorneys representing the Saints’ many legal and illegal ventures partially funded by millions of state dollars every year that a cellular phone call was made.

At some time that afternoon, a Saints lawyer called another lawyer and said they had not gotten a chance to really look over everything and to go ahead and proceed.

Does Glenn Guilbeau get paid by the Shreveport Times?

probably has some issues to address with how teams handle prescription drugs, and the Saints are probably not the only team to have an issue with this. They just had a problem come up and have a guy who was hell bent on making a big deal out of it and finally has. I’m not saying the Saints handled whatever the situation truly was properly, and maybe Loomis made some decisions that in hindsight were imprudent, but I’m not sure it rises to the level of some huge criminal conspiracy. And I really don’t know enough about what happened to second guess how the Saints’ attorneys handled matters in the weeks before and after the filing of the lawsuit. My hope is that by going to arbitration, the Saints think they can resolve this for good, meaning maybe they think criminal charges are unlikely.

There might have been some facts that he did not report on the situation, but that would be better than not reporting it at all.

Personally I think the horse is dead by now. If you pay attention to the articles on this situation, it basically states the same things and virtually points blame on the saints organization. We do not know what Loomis reported, how he reported it, or what he may or may not have left out. Vitt is toast. That much i think we can all agree on. Everything else that we know is more or less media driven.

Don’t fall for the Guilbeau bait…

That’s all I’ve got left for this story. A shrug. I don’t care what some columnist, whether Peter King, Mike Douchebag Florio or Glenn Guilbeau, thinks the Saints did, or what they think they should have done. They have no more to base their opinions on than we do, which is merely what Santini’s lawsuit accused them of and what Santini hinted at with weasel words in his interview.

a man who has been a FBI agent for 31 years, and helped toast a crooked governor, would JUST want money out of it. From what I read around the web, this man has a pretty good reputation for being by the book and could probably be looked upon as someone who’s just trying to protect his long earned credibility. And yes, a nice retirement plan too…

Santini said in the interview that he believed he was saving the situation but that after he brought it to the attention of Loomis, he deemed it necessary to protect himself and began wearing a wire. He recorded conversations with head trainer Scottie Patton, assistant trainer Kevin Mangum and Loomis.

"It broke my heart to have to put a recorder on these people," Santini told USA Today. “Let’s make one thing perfectly clear, I have no ill will against the Saints.”

When Santini was called to meet with owner Tom Benson, he appealed to Loomis one more time. Santini alleges that Loomis had shared only certain details with the owner and told Benson that Payton had a medical condition to take Vicodin.

“I begged Mickey Loomis,” Santini said. "I said, ’Now’s the opportunity to tell him everything. We can get this out on the table so at least the owner is fully aware. He owns the team. He’s the boss. And if we get him fully knowledgeable, then we’re safe.’ But Mickey didn’t want to do that.

“He was protecting Payton. That day pretty much ended it for me.”

-Brad Biggs, Yahoo Sports, May 12th

I’m sure you guys noticed it as much as I did when Payton said he never “abused or stole Vicodin”. What about not taking it at all? Carefully written words by Saints’ attorneys I guess…

I do think Sean got addicted and Loomis tried to cover it up. Once everything is said and done, I’ll be happy with just a suspension by the NFL. And please avoid putting me on any grudge list for saying so cause this one will probably bite you back.