NFL's Saints yank credentials of .com sports writer

Wow. Well, I was hoping for more insight into the workings of the NFL team front office, but I guess it's still the economy, stupid.

As to some of the issues raised here, we are trying to turn around a site that had traditionally been a hotel and travel spot. Locally, that means sports, at every level from prep to pro. Brian has covered the Saints for more than 23 years and is a well-respected member of the sports journalism community. We were fortunate to be able to bring him on board when Advance Publishing and the Times-Picayune decided his services were no longer needed there.

Is there more to the story? On our end, probably not. We are fans of the Saints and have withheld commenting on the discussions between our site and the front office until we were banned from practices this week. At that point, we really had no choice but to go public, especially since CBSSportsline.com had already commented on the situation earlier this month. As noted in our story, our ownership's numerous requests for a meeting with the team press relations department were refused.

At any rate, thanks for taking the time to post and read over the story. Any votes of support would be appreciated.

 

A year's severance pay is nice until you realize you'll be lucky to make $30k annually in your next newspaper job.

As for the reasoning behind taking away credentials, bush league by the Saints since the NewOrleans.com is providing coverage that is obviously better than some fan site.

 

man (or should i say "son?"), are you young. veteran nfl writers such as my friend brian have been at this for 20 years or more with plenty to offer. many of those ilk, myself included, live in dread of being laid off or bought out for a half-year's salary or often much less, neither of which can sustain anyone with a family for a substantial period of time.

damn straight, if/when the time comes, many of us 40-50-60-somethings would go to work for a .com like this to keep the checks coming in. darn tootin'.

money to travel? eff that. how 'bout money to survive?

 

Brian's one of the good ones. Here's hoping they can straighten this out.

 

Well, for starters I'm not 50-60, but I'm definitely not your son.

I have no problem with someone deciding to stick with the business to get paid. And I'm not questioning anyone's writing ability or whether they have something left to give. But if the chance is there to truly retire, I expressed my opinion on how I would want to spend my golden years. I'm also old enough to understand that dreams and reality rarely match up perfectly.

There's something missing from this story. Something was said or done that we don't know about that would better explain the actions taken by the Saints.

 

Most teams ban out of town guys from practice, but a well-known and well-regarded local guy? Bush (pun attended) move.

 

Glen,
The insinuation (or at least the perceived insinuation) is that the something said or done was on our part, or on Brian's part.

On that count, I stand 100 percent by our story and its accounting of the events. If there is anything outside of that on the Saints end, then I am not aware of it.

Our staff has been courteous, professional and deferential at every turn toward the Saints and their representatives. To imply anything less is an insult to not only NewOrleans.Com's staff but to every journalist, like Brian, who takes extreme pride in both their craft and the relationships they build to report their stories.

There probably is another factor at work here. That factor, however, is not a lack of professionalism on our end. Find another tree to bark at.

 

Glen only stated what many of us are thinking.

Nine weeks into the season with a 23-year veteran reporter and the team goes shitty? The team's in the Super Bowl and your site doesn't have credentials, and can't get a sit-down with the PR people after weeks of trying? Banned from practice?

Yeah, people think there's more to it. What it is, we don't know. Probably don't need to know, honestly. But curiosity is a big thing.

Maybe it will work out to the good for you.

 

Six,

We have credentials, for the Super Bowl, from the NFL. We had credentials, from the NFL, for the NFC championship. The local front office, however, banished us from practice.

Like I said, it wasn't anything we did. Feel free to peruse our site and check our coverage. There's no smoking gun. Not to sound haughty but read a little before letting natural curiosity dictate your judgments. There's a lot of that going around apparently.

 

This has been an ongoing thing, though. Just an FYI to the people who aren't familiar with it. It started back in fall camp when the CBSSportsline guy was banned from attending practice, because apparently he was doing his job too well (sending updates as soon as he got off the practice field). That was ironed out eventually (I think a day later) and it seemed to go away, until BAW took the buyout from Times-Pic and retired to NewOrleans.com.

They gave BAW a hard time initially, then gave in, then gave him a hard time, then gave in. It's been a constant power struggle. I like BAW. I think he's an insanely funny guy and a helluva reporter. Tells it like it and doesn't mince words. I think, truth be told, he rubs the Saints the wrong way at times. Then again, who hasn't rubbed Sean Payton or this current regime the wrong way in the last three years?

I think it's very much bush league what the Saints are doing. I don't know what kind of point they're trying to prove other than they have the power to fuck with people. My organization has had mixups with the Saints in the past and I think a lot of it stems from the fact that they don't understand "new media" (even though they actually have a Director of New Media). They're stuck in the old days when circulation dictated how close you could get to coaches/players.

 

I didn't know about the cbssportsline issues early on. That starts to show a pattern that I can understand.

Thanks, Stagger.

 

Finally somebody gets to the root of what seems to be happening. So he probably pissed them off at some point. The CBS guy probably got it worked out because in the end, he works for CBS, an NFL rightsholder.

During the MLB playoffs, you'll see tons of media not get a clubhouse badge, which means they can't get into the clubhouse to do interviews after the game. I think most clubs handle it "somewhat" fairly-- i.e. if you've been there all season, you get a badge....... but there's always some griping. And really, if you can't get into the clubhouse for postgame, what's the point?

I think the clubs' reasoning is they want to give the players their space during the playoffs, cull the horde, and keep the riff raff (ladies from The View, the teenager from myTwitblog.com, the Access Hollywood production assistant) out....... but it really is bullshit nonetheless.

OTOH, at least you usually have fair warning if you won't be getting a badge, so you can make plans to pool.