The report that Saints G.M. Mickey Loomis had the ability to listen to conversations involving coaches from other teams has few voices. The response from the Saints has many.
The latest Saints official to go on the record is Robert Carroll, audio engineer for the Saints’ radio broadcasts. Carroll told WWL that, if anything like that was going on, he would have known about it.
“Absolutely, without question,” Carroll said. “I’ve spent too many hours in that Superdome not to think I would have seen something.”
Carroll’s immediate reaction to the report was skepticism. “My opinion, when I heard the story, I said, ‘This is crazy. This is ridiculous,’” Carroll said.
It meshes with the information from a growing list of current and former Saints employees, most if not all of whom have an incentive to support the team. But the allegation apparently is coming from someone with an incentive to hurt the team, given that only someone who worked (or still works) for the team would have access to information regarding the eavesdropping system.
And that’s all the more reason for a detailed investigation to be conducted, by the authorities and by the NFL. Though the league claims it won’t take action until the investigation being conducted by a joint state/federal task force has concluded, the NFL has in the past conducted its own investigations before any official proceedings have concluded. Five years ago, for example, the NFL actively was investigating the Mike Vick situation; indeed, it’s believed that the NFL urged the feds to get involved when it appeared that local authorities in Virginia were poised, intentionally or otherwise, to bungle the investigation.
It could be that the NFL recognizes the potential gravity of the allegations, and that by forcing people like Loomis to talk before the official investigation ends could result in the NFL getting subpoenaed to provide any information that Loomis or others who may refuse to talk to the authorities gives to the league.