cowboyjoe
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New Orleans paper confirms Sean Payton, Joe Vitt as unnamed employees in Santini suit
Posted by Mike Florio on May 1, 2010 7:00 PM ET
We reported shortly after noon Saturday that coach Sean Payton and assistant head coach/linebackers coach Joe Vitt are the unnamed Saints employees to whom former director of security Geoffrey Santini's lawsuit refers in connection with the alleged abuse and/or theft of Vicodin from the team drug locker.
Several hours later, after Payton issued a statement denying any abuse or theft of Vicodin, Mike Triplett of the New Orleans Times Picayune reported the same thing -- without, of course, crediting us.
Ordinarily, we'd have no problem with writers or (more often) editors pretending not to notice something we have reported. (After eight-plus years, we've sort of gotten numb to it.) In this case, however, we suspect that the Times-Picayune knew damn well that Payton and Vitt were "Senior Staff Member A" and "Senior Staff Member B," respectively, but didn't have the guts to go with it until after Payton issued a denial. (We'll admit that we're speculating on this specific point; if anyone from the Times-Pic wants to provide us with an official explanation regarding the reason for their decision not to credit us despite the fact that their report came four hours after ours, we're all ears.)
Meanwhile, we've got to give credit where credit is due for, um, giving credit. ESPN.com has expressly acknowledged that Payton's statement came in response to our report, an admirable gesture given that we've taken a few shots at the four-letter network lately.
Finally, to all of you who believed/hoped/prayed that we'd finally put ourselves in line for the kind of lawsuit that would shut us down permanently, do you really think we're that stupid?
I mean, we're stupid. But we're not that stupid.
Posted by Mike Florio on May 1, 2010 7:00 PM ET
We reported shortly after noon Saturday that coach Sean Payton and assistant head coach/linebackers coach Joe Vitt are the unnamed Saints employees to whom former director of security Geoffrey Santini's lawsuit refers in connection with the alleged abuse and/or theft of Vicodin from the team drug locker.
Several hours later, after Payton issued a statement denying any abuse or theft of Vicodin, Mike Triplett of the New Orleans Times Picayune reported the same thing -- without, of course, crediting us.
Ordinarily, we'd have no problem with writers or (more often) editors pretending not to notice something we have reported. (After eight-plus years, we've sort of gotten numb to it.) In this case, however, we suspect that the Times-Picayune knew damn well that Payton and Vitt were "Senior Staff Member A" and "Senior Staff Member B," respectively, but didn't have the guts to go with it until after Payton issued a denial. (We'll admit that we're speculating on this specific point; if anyone from the Times-Pic wants to provide us with an official explanation regarding the reason for their decision not to credit us despite the fact that their report came four hours after ours, we're all ears.)
Meanwhile, we've got to give credit where credit is due for, um, giving credit. ESPN.com has expressly acknowledged that Payton's statement came in response to our report, an admirable gesture given that we've taken a few shots at the four-letter network lately.
Finally, to all of you who believed/hoped/prayed that we'd finally put ourselves in line for the kind of lawsuit that would shut us down permanently, do you really think we're that stupid?
I mean, we're stupid. But we're not that stupid.
