For years, Duncan has been blistered on this forum, largely based on his somewhat negative coverage of the Saints organization during Bountygate. The most frequent allegation was that he turned on the local team to get a job with a national organization. A frequent response seen was I will never read Jeff Duncan.
I never was terribly critical of Duncan because I thought the organization merited criticism over Bountygate--though I also believe that the NFL's investigation was one-sided and the league's sanctions were absurd. The investigation findings and penalties were driven by the then ongoing head-injury class-action lawsuit. In large part, my anger at the organization was based on my understanding that the Saints and at least one other team had been warned by the league about "bounties" and that the Saints simply ignored the warning, putting themselves in the position to be the league's convenient scapegoat, which is exactly what happened. Bountygate was about public relations, not player safety. But we handed them our head on a platter.
But it seems these days that if the Saints organization at any time was upset with Duncan, it no longer is. When Payton was here, the organization leaked to Sean's friends in the national media what he wanted to leak. Then it seemed the organization and Nick Underhill had a cozy relationship with Underhill reporting what the Saints wanted reported. Today it seems that if the Saints want something talked about, Jeff Duncan in their go-to guy.
Is my impression about Duncan today wrong?