Louis Freeh Committee Ready to Focus on Saints Bountygate

Now that the report on Joe Paterno and Penn State has been released, Louis Freeh is ready to tackle his next project: the New Orleans Saints “Bountygate” scandal.

According to Ryan Jones of The Times-Picayune, Freeh was hired by the Saints organization back in April to investigate specific details regarding the case:

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Owner Tom Benson retained the group, headed by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, in April to focus primarily on wiretapping allegations made against General Manager Mickey Loomis and then afterward, to follow up on the NFL's investigation of a Saints pay-for-performance/bounty program.

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Essentially, the Saints want Freeh and his team to dive into the details around the bounty scandal, which led to suspensions of Gregg Williams, Sean Payton, Jonathan Vilma and others.

They want the gory details.

More importantly, the organization wants clarity on the allegations that general manager Mickey Loomis engaged in wiretapping habits for seven years.

This makes sense considering authorities still have an open investigation. In addition, charges could still be filed against Loomis. Local police and the FBI are currently involved in the proceedings.

Freeh’s name has become a familiar one in recent days as the leaks on his group’s Penn State investigation came out. Today, he officially released the report, and the details have forced a nation to re-evaluate its thoughts on the formerly revered Coach Paterno legend.

Though not all details regarding the proceedings with the Saints are known at the moment, odds are that the report will be rather extensive. The Freeh Group conducted over 430 interviews and provided a 267-page report for Penn State.

A key detail to remember is that since the Saints are a private entity, the organization doesn’t have to release the report to the media—unlike Penn State, a public university.

It will be interesting to see if the Saints organization will keep the investigation under wraps should the information reflect extremely poorly on its management, players and franchise as a whole. 

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