Mickey Loomis: Saints GM Denying Report of Eavesdropping Carries No Weight

It's hard for fans to believe New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis when he denies allegations that he spied on opposing coaches' communications from the 2002-04 NFL seasons after his organization was running a bounty program over the last few years that resulted in multiple suspensions and likely more to come.

UPDATE: Tuesday, April 24, 4:30 p.m. ET by Donald Wood

The Saints latest trouble including general manager Mickey Loomis and eavesdropping will not be handled by the NFL until the proper authorities conclude their investigation and the league can conduct its own.

The Washington Post is reporting about the leagues policy on waiting until the legal system takes its course:

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NFL officials do not intend to take action on the allegation of electronic eavesdropping against the New Orleans Saints until the legal process has run its course, a person familiar with the situation said Tuesday. The person, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the league generally refrains from acting on an issue when law enforcement is involved until after the legal process has played out. The league plans to take that approach in this matter, the person said.

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With another issues coming from the New Orleans organization this offseason, its obvious that the league wants to know all the information before basically giving Loomis his second strike in as many months. Depending on the findings of the investigation, Loomis could be in serious trouble with the NFL.

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Loomis told Fox Sports that the ESPN report is not true:

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"This report on ESPN is absolutely false," Loomis wrote in an email. "I have a monitor in front of me in my booth that provides the league-issued stats for the game. I have a small TV with the network broadcast and I have an earpiece to listen to the WWL-AM radio (flagship broadcaster) game broadcast.

"To think I am sitting in there listening and actually and/or doing something with the offensive and defensive play calls of the opposing teams makes this story and the unnamed sources that provided the false information that much less credible. It just didn’t happen."

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While these allegations are just that, allegations, it wouldn't surprise many if Loomis actually eavesdropped on opposing teams.

The bounty program proved that the Saints have been one of the dirtiest organizations in pro football in recent seasons, so it's not hard to believe these allegations.

If the ESPN report is true, the alleged actions happened before the Spygate scandal that has tarnished the New England Patriots' legacy, so the use of cameras and other ways of gaining an advantage on opponents wasn't a major topic like it is now.

Teams are always looking for ways to gather the most information about an opponent, whether it's scouting more in depth, watching a ton of film or asking guys around the league what they think of certain players.

However, when you cross the line and break NFL rules to gather information, or maybe even federal laws in this case with the Saints, there needs to be strict punishments handed down by league commissioner Roger Goodell.

Again, these are just allegations of eavesdropping, but since there's already a lot of evidence that the Saints ran a bounty program, can we really be surprised if the team eavesdropped on coaches too?

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