WHAT?!

Lawyers: New Orleans Saints Helped Shape Clergy Sex Abuse List

Attorneys say the team’s executives had a hand in choosing who was on the list.

Attorneys suing the Archdiocese of New Orleans claim executives for the New Orleans Saints helped shape the list of clergy members credibly accused of sex abuse, The Associated Press reports. “The Saints appear to have had a hand in determining which names should or should not have been included on the pedophile list,” the lawyers wrote, pointing to one email that allegedly referred to Saints Senior Vice President of Communications Greg Bensel joining other “third parties” in a discussion about “removing priests from the pedophile list.” It's not clear if other Saints officials may have been involved. Other emails that recently came to light allegedly revealed that Saints executives were helping the church do public relations work in the fallout of the sexual abuse crisis.

The NFL team's owner, Gayle Benson, is reportedly close friends with the local archbishop—but she said the accusation that they would help the church conceal their crimes was “outrageous.” In a statement Wednesday, the team said it never offered “advice to conceal information.” The New Orleans Archdiocese on Thursday said the Saints’ role was only “limited to guidance in releasing information to media” and nothing about the clergy list.