NFL's Saints yank credentials of .com sports writer

You're right ... my bad. Didn't read closely enough.

Natural curiosity does affect judgments, though, snap and well-reasoned.

 

I'm sure Greg Bensel was only doing what he was instructed to do. However, he has been a problem for news organizations since his arrival. He's almost impossible to reach, rarely returns calls and plays favorites. Big media, particularly national TV media, get preferred treatment. Of course, I know that last part is not unusual in NFL circles.

 

Have the Saints explained their reasons for pulling the credentials?

I wouldn't fault the dot-com automatically, nor fault the Saints automatically. As a journalist, there are more than two sides to every story. I don't think we've seen everything just yet. And that's no insult to anyone.

 

We're a small paper a couple hours away, and we don't cover the Saints regularly. We figured, though, that since we were covering the New Orleans Bowl we'd send our guy a day early and he could cover the Saints-Cowboys game.
Sent in the credential request three weeks ahead of time and heard nothing. A week and a half out, we started calling and e-mailing. Still nothing. Not even a returned phone call, or anyone picking up the phone in the office.
Guy gets to the Dome that Saturday, and they tell him that not only is there no credential but it's HIS fault for not calling to check first. I don't know how he kept himself from punching that PR flack in the liver when he heard that.

Now, given our situation, I can certainly understand if they had turned us down. We have covered them on occasion in the past but not in a few years. And that was a big game. No room? No hard feelings.
But at least take two minutes and fire off an e-mail to let us know. Or, hey, here's a novel freaking concept -- answer the phone!
Ridiculously unprofessional.

 

e-bowker, Bensel has something like three assistants. That's like four guys taking care of one sport year-round. It's not like some college SID office with maybe two guys covering a bunch of overlapping sports. There's no reason why the Saints could not have at least sent you an e-mail. The Saints have turned things around on the field from years past, but public relations-wise, they may be worse than ever.

 

All I wanna say is Brian Allee-Walsh is one of the finest gentlemen I've met in this business. A lotta laughs, but a hard worker. A great friend. Spent many nights on the road with my boy Walshie.

And he deserved better.

A lot better.

 

Believe me, Luggy, CBSSports.com has had problems on and off all season, rightsholder or no.

 

Not all of these "dot-coms" are what they are cracked up to be, but there's a big difference between BAW, CBSsportsline's guy and some blogger in his Saints pajamas showing up.

It's called judgement, Saints front office. Maybe the Saints are settling an old score with BAW and hiding behind their antediluvian rule.

Either way, it sucks. With every newspaper boasting a website, we're all writing for the web. So what's the difference if a press isn't involved? Bastards.

 

Maybe they were getting too many requests from other blogs and stuff and in prefer to justify preventing them from clogging up practice they had to draw a line and enforce it. That line may have included NO.com.

Just a guess.

 

As far as I know, two other people in that room cover the Saints on a full-time basis and write for a dot.com. One is the CBSSports guy and the other is WWLTV.com. Neither are denied access to practice/locker room like BAW has been. So, when you look at it from that angle, it sure appears to be a personal thing.

And I'm not sure BAW or NewOrleans.com has ever gotten a specific reason why they're being denied access. Sad thing is, the Saints don't have to give a reason. They have the right to allow who they want to allow.

 

Up till this last part, it makes sense. You could understand if a team didn't want every Tom, Dick and Harry with a blog to think that he could credentialed, so they'd just cut it off at all dot.coms, but once they single out Walsh and allow CBS and the TV station, then it becomes more murky.

I've heard of differentiating between "major" dot-coms and "minor" ones, but it would seem like this NO.com would be in the same boat as the TV station's. Both are local and legitimate.

The writer must have pissed off someone, even if he doesn't know why.

 

Freeman's column, as someone else pointed out, sheds a little light...

http://www.cbssports.com/columns/story/12823077/payton-breaks-from-coaching-frequently-to-put-squeeze-on-press

Curious how the report about Shockey surfaced.