John Barr on Mike and Mike

[bobdar]

Heard rumors, tried to confirm for weeks, went with the story after US attorney sent info to FBI Friday.

Loomis supposedly had a box that let him switch between the offensive and defensive chatter.

Said they were trying to do a story on Payton then relays the story about Payton calling reporters and cussing them out.

Getting no cooperation from Saints.

Greenburg tries to cover ESPN's *** at the end saying that these are not our allegations they come from US attorney.

[scott88]

I heard it, so he wouldn't have gone with the story if Payton didn't cuss people out?

[Bounty Hunter]

...he's crawfishing.

[bobdar]

Originally Posted by scott88

I heard it, so he wouldn't have gone with the story if Payton didn't cuss people out?

That was the weirdest part of the interview. It sounded like they were trying to do a story to kill Payton's reputation.

[Ti Rider]

Barr kept talking about Sean Payton in let's call it a "less than favorable light". Why? Payton has absolutely nothing to do with this story. From '02-'04 (when this supposedly occurred) Sean Payton was OC for the Giants/an assistant on the Cowboys. Constantly bringing Payton's name into this makes it clear there's an agenda at work.

But I think without knowing it Barr explained what's going on - the media HATE Sean Payton and Mickey Loomis. This is payback for the Saints organization's adversarial relationship with the media (and a warning for other sports teams not to treat them the same way). This has become a witch hunt.

[shooter34]

I wonder which reporter said Payton cussed them out?

[NewOrleansHotBoy]

He's definitely fishing, but he's standing in neck deep water and his line is in the sand!

[scott88]

Bobby Hebert is on Mike & Mike now

[yurintroubl]

I just posted this in the big Loomis thread - but since this one is actually more on-topic...

Listening to Barr on Mike and Mike just now...

He basically stated that he:

1) has no actual evidence except the word of his [trusted] source(s)
2) he "came across" the story while he had been picking through the carcass of Bountygate looking for an angle about a month ago
3) had been "asking around" and "following up on leads" for a couple of weeks when...
4) he learned the issue had come to the attention of the US Attorney's Office.

My take on this:

This guy asked about 50 different former Saints employees and "people familiar with the organization" over the course of his 2-3 week [pseudo] "investigation"... By repeatedly asking the same questions to a multitude of individuals about a plausible, but completely fictional occurrence - He manufactured the necessity to investigate it.


So basically...

A normal, average Joe - moves into the vacant house next door to Barr. Before anybody else has a chance to meet the new guy - Barr (over the course of a week or so) makes his way around the block to chat up his neighbors... and within each conversation casually mentions "So - Did you hear anything about that new guy Joe being a child molester?" Bring it up enough times and it's going to stick in the back of folks' heads. Couples with kids become more cautious. One day, a baseball ends up in Joe's back yard... He opens the gate for the kid to retrieve it... a parent just sees the kid leaving the guys house... police are called... and TAH-DAH - The investigation into Joe begins...

[saintfan-n-alex]

if FBI and City Attorney were aware of a potential crime wouldnt they investigate and charge if there was cause?

seems to me thats the key to story - unless the 2 entities just found out recently and not 10 yrs ago

[yurintroubl]

Originally Posted by saintfan-n-alex

if FBI and City Attorney were aware of a potential crime wouldnt they investigate and charge if there was cause?

seems to me thats the key to story - unless the 2 entities just found out recently and not 10 yrs ago

Just now finding out about it is exactly what happened. US Attorney's Office made a statement saying something to the effect of "we have been made aware of the situation and are beginning to investigate" or somesuch.

[daybreaker]

So wait.... he ran with the story because the US Attorney said they heard about it but couldnt comment??? Thats not freaking proof. If I submitted anonymous evidence that Bobby Jindal had murdered three hookers, the US Attorney would say the same exact thing: "we received that information, but cant comment on it"

He thinks that just because the same guy who gave him the info also gave the info to the US attorney's office, and Letten confirmed he received the info, that counts as two sources of verification that it ACTUALLY occurred???

NO.

This is shoddy reporting by someone who obviously just wanted to dig up more dirt on the Saints because its a lucrative time to do so. And he jumped the gun because if he waited too long to get the story out, it wouldnt be as big a deal.

[WestBankWhoDat]

Can't wait to hear what Ventura had to say...coming up next

[scott88]

Doesn't matter even if there's any truth to what they are saying about Loomis, they still can't touch him from a legal standpoint

[SAINTS 12]

Just heard Chick Foret on WWL, Barr called Chick Foret on April 5th looking for anything on the Saints,an Chick hung up(ended the call) an sent a text to Greg Bensel an warned him that this guy was going to try and do something bad to expose the Saints,an said that this story was no part of any question Chick took from him.So bottomline he's was looking for anything he could find on the Saints true or not.