Faces of Saints missing as workouts begin
As NFL teams began their usual offseason workouts Monday, nothing was routine for the New Orleans Saints. They had a suspended coach, an unsigned star quarterback doing union business and a team owner busy adding the local basketball team to his holdings while not answering NFL-RElated questions.
Coach Sean Payton was in Day 1 of his full-season, league-imposed suspension in connection with the Saints’ bounty program. Interim coach Joe Vitt will oversee the offseason program. Vitt faces a six-game suspension of his own at the start of the regular season as a result of the bounties.
Amid the turmoil, justsigned special-teams ace Courtney Roby was upbeat. “Felt good to be around all of my teammates & looking forward to a special season . . . look out World!!” Roby tweeted.
But the man who makes the Saints go, quarterback Drew Brees, was in New York as a member of the executive committee of the NFL Players Association. He and others from the union met with league officials on topics that included HGH testing, the future of the Pro Bowl and bounty issues (such as still-unannounced penalties for Saints players).
George Atallah, NFLPA spokesman, said the NFL had yet to provide the union with evidence to prove the bounty allegations. “We are all hoping to ensure a fair and due process,” Atallah said.
Saints owner Tom Benson was at a news conference to announce the NBA had awarded its 2014 All-star Game to New Orleans. Benson agreed last week to buy the Hornets.
When an ESPN reporter asked Benson about Payton’s suspension and Brees’ status, NBA Commissioner David Stern did not allow an answer. “This is an NBA thing,” Stern said. “And if ESPN has a problem with that, they can call me at the office.”