There's been a ton of controversy surrounding the New Orleans Saints and their involvement with the area's Roman Catholic sexual abuse crisis. Although team owner Gayle Benson has acknowledged that her team provided minimal PR help, public records suggest that the team's involvement went much further.
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00:00 >>
00:03 There has been a ton of controversy
00:05 surrounding the New Orleans Saints
00:07 and their involvement with the areas
00:08 of Roman Catholic sexual abuse
00:10 crisis.
00:13 Although team owner Gail Benson has
00:15 acknowledged that her team provided
00:16 minimal PR help, public records
00:17 suggest that the team's
00:18 involvement
00:19 went much further.
00:22 Joining me now is SI's writer,
00:24 Jenny Varentes.
00:24 Jenny, what did you
00:26 learn about the Saints' role in
00:28 helping the local Catholic church
00:30 respond to the clergy sex abuse
00:31 scandal?
00:32 >> There has been a lot
00:34 of interest in why would the Saints
00:36 have any involvement in this kind
00:37 of issue.
00:38 A lot of the communications
00:40 between the Saints and the church
00:42 are confidential and currently
00:42 under seal
00:43 in court.
00:44 If you look at public
00:46 records and documents,
00:47 there is an indication
00:48 that the team's involvement
00:49 went farther
00:50 than it stated.
00:51 The team has acknowledged
00:52 that it provided minimal help
00:54 at all levels.
00:55 The team has also said that
00:57 it provided minimal help, as you
00:58 said, PR help to the church
01:00 specific to the release
01:01 of a list of credibly
01:03 accused clergy members.
01:03 But
01:04 communications started months
01:05 before the
01:06 church even decided that it
01:07 would release a list and
01:09 continued for months after.
01:10 That's one
01:11 example of why advocates and
01:12 survivors are wanting the
01:14 Saints to provide a full
01:15 accounting and be fully
01:16 transparent about the
01:17 extent of their involvement.
01:19 Because there are some
01:20 indications at this point that
01:21 it was farther than what the
01:23 Saints had said.
01:24 At this point, it was farther
01:26 than what they have described.
01:28 >> I want to go off of what
01:30 you said.
01:31 You spoke to several survivors
01:33 of clergy sex abuse, many
01:34 whom are Saints and season
01:35 ticket holders.
01:36 How did they react to
01:38 learning the Saints played
01:39 any role in helping the
01:41 church on this issue?
01:42 >> Yeah, I mean, it's
01:44 obviously something that has
01:45 really affected them
01:46 personally.
01:47 I talked to a survivor
01:49 who is a season ticket
01:50 holder who was unsure if he
01:52 would renew his season
01:53 tickets.
01:54 Another survivor is the
01:55 daughter of a former Saints
01:57 linebacker and she stopped
01:58 watching football.
01:59 Another survivor had once
02:00 used the Saints as therapy,
02:02 as kind of an escape from
02:04 all of the after effects of
02:06 the abuse that he's been
02:08 dealing with.
02:09 Now that has changed.
02:10 I think they want answers.
02:12 They want to know how
02:14 involved the Saints were.
02:15 Did they do more than just
02:17 PR help surrounding the list?
02:19 Did they shape the list in
02:20 any capacity?
02:21 I think there's a lot of
02:23 questions that have been
02:25 raised by the community.
02:26 I think it's important for
02:28 them to hear from two
02:30 organizations that they at
02:31 this point feel betrayed by
02:33 to hear a full accounting
02:34 of these things.
02:35 >> Absolutely.
02:36 We'll continue to follow
02:38 this story.
02:39 Jenny, thank you so much
02:40 for your insight on this.
02:42 I appreciate it.
02:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]