Saints fans anger horribly misdirected
The "Free Sean Payton" shirts are starting to pop up en masse across New Orleans and elsewhere.
Jimmy Buffett wore one at a concert. It just happened to be at concert where Payton was playing the bongos. Nothing like a little music to ready you for your appeal to Roger Goodell.
To say that Saints fans are angry is an understatement. To say that anger is misplaced is a bigger one.
What the Saints case has done is open a window into the flawed mentality of the fan, in this case, the Saints fan.
Some of it is understandable. The Saints have historically been one of the great laughingstocks in the history of sports. The franchise has at times been ridiculed, disgraced and bag-headed.
What Payton did, in the eyes of Saints fans, was right all of those ugly seasons by winning a Super Bowl. This was also done in the wake of Hurricane Katrina thus you can see why some fans get so incensed and remain loyal to Payton while blaming everyone else around the world.
The problem is Goodell or the media or the whistleblowers (plural) aren't the ones who ignored league rules. They aren't the ones who ignored multiple warnings to stop the bounties. They aren't the ones who misled investigators for literally years. They aren't the ones who misled investigators as recently as a few weeks ago, according to Goodell. They aren't the ones who turned a bounty system that was mostly sporadic into a conveyor belt system designed to injure.
This is all on Payton but because Payton is viewed as a savior by Saints fans and because Bountygate taints the franchise Saints fans need to blame someone, anyone other than the culprits themselves.
And Payton is smart. He is, as he has done before, manipulating the Saints populace. Thus his appearance at a Buffett concert playing the freaking bongos. He knows that Saints fans don't want to believe their heroes did such a thing or they repeat the nonsensical mantra that bounties have existed in the NFL forever. They have, but again, not to this degree. Nothing like what the Saints did has ever existed in the NFL. Ever.
We saw some of this with Spygate. The Patriots, like the Saints, were warned to stop filming. They ignored those warnings. Conscious choice. And then the franchise was hammered and Patriots fans lashed out at everyone except Bill Belichick.
This is a story that can be told across many fan bases and many teams in many different sports galaxies.
This one though, Bountygate, might be the worst cases of fan delusion and misplaced anger ever.
Hopefully in the future Buffett will wear a "Blame the Culprits" shirt.
Jimmy Buffett wore one at a concert. It just happened to be at concert where Payton was playing the bongos. Nothing like a little music to ready you for your appeal to Roger Goodell.
To say that Saints fans are angry is an understatement. To say that anger is misplaced is a bigger one.
What the Saints case has done is open a window into the flawed mentality of the fan, in this case, the Saints fan.
Some of it is understandable. The Saints have historically been one of the great laughingstocks in the history of sports. The franchise has at times been ridiculed, disgraced and bag-headed.
What Payton did, in the eyes of Saints fans, was right all of those ugly seasons by winning a Super Bowl. This was also done in the wake of Hurricane Katrina thus you can see why some fans get so incensed and remain loyal to Payton while blaming everyone else around the world.
The problem is Goodell or the media or the whistleblowers (plural) aren't the ones who ignored league rules. They aren't the ones who ignored multiple warnings to stop the bounties. They aren't the ones who misled investigators for literally years. They aren't the ones who misled investigators as recently as a few weeks ago, according to Goodell. They aren't the ones who turned a bounty system that was mostly sporadic into a conveyor belt system designed to injure.
This is all on Payton but because Payton is viewed as a savior by Saints fans and because Bountygate taints the franchise Saints fans need to blame someone, anyone other than the culprits themselves.
And Payton is smart. He is, as he has done before, manipulating the Saints populace. Thus his appearance at a Buffett concert playing the freaking bongos. He knows that Saints fans don't want to believe their heroes did such a thing or they repeat the nonsensical mantra that bounties have existed in the NFL forever. They have, but again, not to this degree. Nothing like what the Saints did has ever existed in the NFL. Ever.
We saw some of this with Spygate. The Patriots, like the Saints, were warned to stop filming. They ignored those warnings. Conscious choice. And then the franchise was hammered and Patriots fans lashed out at everyone except Bill Belichick.
This is a story that can be told across many fan bases and many teams in many different sports galaxies.
This one though, Bountygate, might be the worst cases of fan delusion and misplaced anger ever.
Hopefully in the future Buffett will wear a "Blame the Culprits" shirt.
