Willie Roaf situation and Randy Mueller situation, do you know what happened? (1 Viewer)

max

ALL-MADDEN TEAM
Joined
Apr 19, 2003
Messages
2,138
Reaction score
3,240
Offline
With Willie Roaf was it Joe Horn or Joe Johnson who did it or neither of them? If not, why was he traded?

With Mueller, was it because he was covering up for Haslett’s extracurricular activities or something more benign like signing Dale Carter without talking to Benson first?
 

Seems like there is a pretty reasonable insight provided by this book excerpt.
 
Mueller told Benson he was going on a trip to Georgia to interview draft candidates. He spent the entire weekend at the Masters
golf tournament on Benson's dime. That's the story I remember at the time and the reason he was fired
 
Because I have no inside information, I cannot say the Masters story is wrong. But that is the first time I have heard about Mueller going to the Masters at the team's expense. On the other hand, the reason often cited is that Mueller settled a sexual harrassment claim without Benson's knowledge.
 
Last edited:
I spoke to a young lady who became a cheerleader a few years later and i asked her about the Haslett situation, and she told me that it wasn't true.
 
Because I have no inside information, I cannot say the Masters story is wrong. But that is the first time I have heard about Mueller going to the Masters at the team's expense. On the other hand, the reason often cited is that Mueller settled a sexual harrassment clam without Benson's knowledge.

I don't have inside information either, but I do remember that story on this forum when it happened. We do know this. When Benson
spoke publicly about the firing, he told a reporter " If you own a business, don't you want to know where your money is being spent".
Whether the Masters story is true or not, Mueller was spending money somewhere without Benson's approval
 
Canal Street Chronicles had an article on Meuller earlier this year. Just to excerpt his perspective on the situation:

Following the 2001 season, Mueller was offered a contract extension as he was entering the third year of his original 3-year deal. Shortly after the offer, Mueller was blindsided by Saints’ ownership when Tom Benson asked him to resign. Mueller recalled, “No, it wasn’t mutual at all. He had offered me a contract extension two week after the draft. I had signed a three-year deal when I got there, and I was entering the last year of my contract. He wanted to extend, and I was happy to talk about it. He had made me an offer and two weeks later, out of the blue, he asked me to resign. It wasn’t mutual. I loved it there. My family loved it there. I was totally shocked by the change of events and everybody in the organization was as well. Tom had treated me really good up until that point. I had no issue with him at all.” He then continued, “He did not give me any indication why. He just said that we needed a different management style. I have no idea what he meant by that.

I just gathered my stuff and was gone a few hours later. I think I was just as shocked as everybody else. To go from Executive of the Year and really having them on the right track to dismissal. I would like to say it was knee-jerk, but there was nothing to knee-jerk about.”

You can read the rest of the article here:
https://www.canalstreetchronicles.c...randy-mueller-xfl-coach-interview-john-butler
 
I believed Tom Benson more than I believe Randy Mueller. Benson said why he fired him when he did it. If Mueller wants to act like it was a total blindside, whatever. He blindsided his boss with stuff constantly and that’s why he got fired.
 
I believed Tom Benson more than I believe Randy Mueller. Benson said why he fired him when he did it. If Mueller wants to act like it was a total blindside, whatever. He blindsided his boss with stuff constantly and that’s why he got fired.
I guess he's still sticking by that story. In 04, WWL had him on as a guest and said the same thing...he didn't know why.

As far as the Willie Roaf situation, I heard it was multiple team mates.
 
The Masters story may have some merit, but I doubt that it was a principal reason in Benson's decision. And something else not mentioned yet is that Mueller, contrary to Benson's wishes, wanted to interview or did interview for the GM job with Atlanta. Further, there were stories that with personnel decisions, Mueller failed to let Benson know what would be taking place.

My personal take remains that there was tension between Benson and Mueller, and when Benson learned that Mueller without telling anyone had settled a sexual harrassment claim--which would have involved much more money than a day in Augusta--he decided that he no longer had trust in Mueller and decided to fire him.
 
I guess he's still sticking by that story. In 04, WWL had him on as a guest and said the same thing...he didn't know why.

As far as the Willie Roaf situation, I heard it was multiple team mates.

it could have been. But the only one that Roaf knew about was “Joe”. So Horns name got speculation (I believe by Willie himself). And it was Joe Johnson. That much is fact.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Users who are viewing this thread

    Back
    Top Bottom