According to a report from ESPN’s “Outside the Lines”, New Orleans Saints GM Mickey Loomis is being accused of having an electronic device in his Superdome suite that allowed him to eavesdrop on visiting coaching staffs. This leaves fans of the NFL shocked for two reasons one being the possibility that the Saints could be embroiled in yet another scandal and two the World Wide Leader finally doing some investigative reporting.
The report states that Loomis listened in on opposing coaches between 2002 and 2004 accusations that he has fervently denied.
Loomis himself issued a denial to Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer.
“This report on ESPN is absolutely false. I have a monitor in front of me in my booth that provides the league issued stats for the game. I have a small tv with the network broadcast and I have an earpiece to listen to the WWL-AM radio game broadcast,” Loomis wrote, according to Glazer.
“To think I am sitting in there listening and actually and or doing something with the offensive and defensive play calls of the opposing teams makes this story and the unnamed sources that provided the false information that much more less credible…it just didn’t happen.”
The negative press and tough offseason continues for a Saints organization that’s already embattled with the bounty program that ran rampant within the Saints locker room the past several years. A program that Loomis was also involved in.
The report further states that former Saints general manager Randy Mueller originally installed the electronic device, which was first used to listen to Saints coaches. However, when Loomis became general manager, the system was allegedly rewired so he could use an earpiece to listen to opposing coaches during game days.
The system was also reportedly disabled in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina and never hooked backed up.
The NFL has come out said that they’ve been unaware of any type of eavesdropping allegations towards the Saints while Loomis (who is already suspended the first eight games for his involvement in bountygate) is considering a lawsuit against ESPN.
If everything is true it’s hard to imagine what exactly would happen to Loomis and the impact it would have on the Saints organization. Perhaps the NFL could implement the closest thing to a death penalty on the organization that was once thought to be the new “America’s Team”.
Ref: Sporting News, ESPN
