NFL: 2016 NFL Offseason News & Notes Discussion Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.

Roboturner913

Registered User
Jul 3, 2012
25,853
55,526
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/1...enson-wants-leave-zero-daughter-grandchildren

Seems to me the entire issue rides with his Gold-Digger wife. She likely wanted it all to herself. IMO it should go to his kids first and foremost.

You don't know anything at all about this situation.

The granddaughter Rita LeBlanc, who was basically his handpicked successor for 10 years, is an awful, awful, trashy person. She was once pretty well-liked and respected but a few years ago things started coming out about her, well before any of this power struggle stuff came to be. She went through something like 30 personal assistants in 6 years. After the Super Bowl she pretty much went off the rails being all power-hungry, and she's been seen at parties all over town for years high as a kite. She's slept with players, she alienated people all over town. There were also rumors she was in talks about moving the team to San Antonio or Los Angeles when she inherited. She became a hated figure, and I mean HATED in New Orleans, well before any of this happened.

http://theadvocate.com/sports/saints/11413970-123/tom-benson-has-long-harbored

What accelerated things was she apparently tried to oust both Payton and Loomis in early 2013 without the old man's knowledge. You have to understand Benson and Payton have an almost father/son relationship. She had already pissed a lot of people off by this point and it was pretty much the last straw. So he fired her, and thinking he had no choice, he changed his will because he at that point now believed that her inheriting the team upon his death would be a bad thing. And then she assaulted Gayle Benson in the middle of a game, in the stands, in front of everybody.

Still it's not like he cut the family off entirely. He transferred the trusts that hold the ownership of the Saints and Pelicans to his wife and replaced that with assets of proven equal value - and that was a legal contractual condition of the trusts that gave him an out in the first place. 95% of the Saints and 60% of the Pelicans when you take the dollar equivalent is a hell of a lot of money. The Saints alone are in the top 25% of franchise worth among all US professional sports teams.

http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2016/05/saints_pelicans_owner_tom_bens_8.html

The LeBlancs could've simply taken their hundreds and hundreds of millions and gone away at this point, but instead they decided to sue and prove him metnally incompetent. Which he's not. He's been on dozens of TV and radio interviews and court appearances since. He's a doddering old man, and I'm sure he has memory lapses at 87 years old, but he's definitely not senile, and two different courts (soon to be a 3rd) have declared him capable.

In the midst of all this, the "gold digger" wife Gayle (and it's not like she's some sweet POA, she's in her 60s for Chrissakes) has done a ton of good for local charities, she's involved in the community, they got the Hall of Fame field named after him. She's liked and respected all over town, if not beloved and she's pretty much responsible for turning the old man's reputation 180 degrees. You will have a very, very hard time finding anybody in New Orleans who supports the LeBlancs in any way and a lot of people will tell you if they somehow end up getting their hands on things they will relocate both teams as soon as they can.
 
Last edited:

sigma six

Doesn't need stick tape
Aug 2, 2005
7,054
2,428
Cascadia
I can hear Doug Baldwin and his agent high-fiving from here. Another UDFA wr who's about to get paid.

I'm actually hoping they extend him ahead of time, love that dude.
 

Gene Parmesan

Dedicated to babies who came feet first
Jul 23, 2009
84,758
2,406
California
That has to drive the stat whackers crazy.

It does. A lot of fans get wrapped up in college production as it translates to the NFL. Arik Armstead put up mediocre production at Oregon and 49er fans flipped out when they drafted him. He was pretty damn impressive in limited snaps despite being raw. He has frightening power.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->