More Details Emerge On Saints’ Meeting With NFL Investigators

Via SI.com:

Last Thursday, Loomis and Payton flew to New York to meet individually with Joe Hummel, the NFL’s director of investigations, and Jeff Miller, its lead security officer. Faced with the weight of evidence, one league source said, Loomis admitted he could have done more and that he “let Mr. Benson down.”

According to the source, Payton refused to admit he knew much of what Williams was doing. Confronted with the e-mail from Ornstein, Payton expressed surprise and said he hadn’t read the e-mail.

Ornstein is Mike Ornstein, a marketing agent who got into legal trouble regarding the scalping of Super Bowl tickets and fraudulent game-worn jerseys. He was reportedly a close confidant of Payton, and he has been accused of sending an email to Payton with an offer to put money into the pot for bounties.

As you can read above, Payton denied that he read the email. King reports that Ornstein claimed he was kidding about the monetary pledge.

It’s significant that Payton denied he knew everything that was going on. The NFL’s investigation claimed that Payton knew but didn’t do anything to stop it.

Lying to the league is never a good look and could end up making the punishment worse.

As has been previously reported, a decision on the punishment for those involved is expected some time before the NFL’s owners meetings at the end of March.

SB Nation’s YouTube crew discussed the bounty investigation, which you can view below. Subscribe to SB Nation’s video channel here.

For more on the Saints and the bounty scandal, check out New Orleans Saints blog Canal Street Chronicles and our Saints bounty program StoryStream.