What followed was a monthslong, crisis-communications blitz orchestrated by the New Orleans Saints ' president and other top team officials, according to hundreds of internal emails obtained by The Associated Press.
The records, which the Saints and church had long sought to keep out of public view, reveal team executives played a more extensive role than previously known in a public relations campaign to mitigate fallout from the clergy sexual abuse crisis. The emails shed new light on the Saints' foray into a fraught topic far from the gridiron, a behind-the-scenes effort driven by the team's devoutly Catholic owner who has long enjoyed a close relationship with the city's embattled archbishop.
They also showed how various New Orleans institutions -- from a sitting federal judge to the local media -- rallied around church leaders at a critical moment. The call, the spokesman said, "allowed us to take certain people off" the list. The disclosure of those names invited civil claims against the church and drew attention from federal and state law enforcement. The emails obtained by AP sharply undercut assurances the Saints gave fans about the public relations guidance five years ago when they asserted they had provided only "minimal" assistance to the church.
The team went to court to keep its internal emails secret. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans. All of them should have been just as horrified at the allegations. The Saints told the AP last week that the partnership is a thing of the past.
The emails cover a yearlong period ending in July , when they were subpoenaed by attorneys for victims of a priest later charged with raping an 8-year-old boy. In a lengthy statement, the team criticized the media for using "leaked emails for the purpose of misconstruing a well-intended effort.
