The Miami Dolphins will be featured in HBO’s “Hard Knocks” series this summer, and the cable network has its star after Chad Ochocinco signed with the team this week.
HBO wanted the New Orleans Saints, but it turns out Dick Wolf is already developing a new series called “Law & Order: Who Dat?”
As in, who dat gonna investigate the Saints next?
In the last two years, the list has been long:
The Drug Enforcement Administration started a probe two years ago after a former FBI agent who worked as the Saints’ chief of security said the team — general manager Mickey Loomis in particular — asked him to cover up the felony theft of Vicodin from the Saints’ medicine supply.
That former FBI agent, Geoff Santini, sued the Saints over the alleged cover-up, but that lawsuit disappeared with a settlement that included a privacy clause.
In April, it was revealed that both the FBI and the Louisiana State Police were looking into reports that the Saints used wiretaps to eavesdrop on opposing coaches’ radio communications from 2002 to 2004.
Of course, there is Bountygate, the NFL’s charge that former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams paid players to injure opposing players intentionally.
Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois Democrat, has said he plans to call for a hearing to look into the bounties, which means congressional investigators will be taking their swings at the Saints organization.
Perhaps Congress will call Mary Jo White to testify. The former federal prosecutor, who has put mobsters and terrorists in jail, was asked by the NFL to examine the evidence against the Saints to determine whether its case was credible.
After all this, the Saints themselves somehow determined that they had a serious image problem. Last week the franchise announced it was hiring the law firm run by former FBI director Louis Freeh to do an internal investigation.
“Serious allegations have been made about our organization this offseason,” Saints spokesman Greg Bensel wrote in an email, according to the Associated Press. “We take these allegations very seriously.”
Very seriously? Heck, I’m not sure late mob boss Carlos Marcello ever had so many current and former investigators and law enforcement agencies looking into his organization.
Surely if Jim Garrison were alive today, the former New Orleans district attorney would have his own probe under way. I half expect someday to see Kevin Costner on “SportsCenter” with a pipe and a New Orleans accent standing in the middle of the Saints’ training facility, pointing out the various locations where the conspiracy and cover-up unfolded.
All this ought to make for an interesting Super Bowl in February in New Orleans.
You think the Peyton Manning story in Indianapolis overshadowed Super Bowl week earlier this year? That may seem like a fond memory compared to the next NFL showcase, whose theme may be “Fear and Loathing in New Orleans.”
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
