An Open Letter to Tom Benson

Dear Mr. Benson,

Congratulations on being rich. It must be very nice - don't get me wrong, I'm doing just fine, but you have for years mismanaged the New Orleans Saints so badly that it only stands to reason that you aren't doing it for the moola. I'd add my condolences to you and your family for the recent tragedy from Hurricane Katrina...except that you seem to have not only done just fine, but are trying to use the tragedy for personal benefit.

You, dear sir, are a foul and disgusting example of everything that is wrong with team owners in professional sports. The reports have it that not only are you considering playing all your home games in San Antonio this season (an understandable choice, if sad for the Saints faithful, whoever they are) but that you are planning not to move back to New Orleans.

Ever.

Because the city is going to be so burdened by - you know, a natural disaster the likes of which this country hasn't seen in a century -- you are reportedly hoping that they will default on their payments to you, so you can move the team to the highest bidder. If that wasn't disgusting enough, one of the ways you are (again, reportedly) hoping this will happen is by forcing the non-payment by not refunding season ticket holders even though you are playing the game in an entirely different state than their HOME.

I can't really get the words together to express how disgusting this is. Clearly, you don't understand or care about the suffering in your city. It's all about making the most money off of this situation, and screw the fact that taking the biggest professional sports team out of New Orleans isn't just LIKE kicking the city when its down, it IS doing exactly that.

Wow. What an immense fuckstick you are. It's almost impressive. I thought you were a terrible owner before the tragedy, just for keeping Jim Haslett as the head coach when he's clearly in over his head. But this...this charts new ground for assholery.