NFL: The victim mentality in New Orleans

[luke18]

I found this on the LSU-centric message board "Tigerdroppings.com" posted by the user "TulaneLSU", yes it is a long read but I thought it hit the nail on the head. I am not posting this to shit on the city of New Orleans or the state of Louisiana (I was born and attended college there), but rather to point out the punk-ass stance that many Saints fans have taken in the wake of "bounty-gate". Again, this is not a post meant to shit on New Orleans, I just found it difficult to write down my feelings on this subject without sounding like a blind homer/loud asshole who hates a city based on an NFL team residing there.

http://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/p/324...leans.aspx


"I will admit it - after Katrina I felt like a victim. And in many ways, the city was made victim. The city was victim to a flawed federal levee system. The city was the victim to a botched federal and state response to an unprecedented disaster. The city was victim to many businesses departing for greener climes, nearly including the flirtatious Benson who tried to swing a deal with San Antonio. True, the city was not innocent in the matter. We failed to demand better levees and better maintenance from our crooked levee boards. We failed to institute a system to help the poor and elderly to evacuate. We failed to make a better climate for business. We were victim and we were at fault. But for most of us, we harped on our victimhood.

Then came the BP oil spill. It seemed to me that the mentality that we were not at fault and the world was picking on us had only spread. The same people who relied on oil products and lived here because much of the economy is based on oil exploration and refining started suing anyone they could. Why? Because we had an entrenched victim mentality. Yes, I know some people, especially fishermen, had a legit beef because their livelihoods were halted. But for most who benefited? You had waiters and anyone and everyone associated with tourism clamoring for a handout. Their livelihoods had not been negatively impacted, and in some cases, the infusion of cleaners improved their salaries, even without their settlements.

New Orleans did not always have this way of looking at the world. There was once a time when the city was guilty of the opposite: of hiding our weaknesses from the outside for the fear of being seen as an outcast or as a victim. Bank and city leaders throughout the 19th century did all that they could to suppress news about yellow fever outbreaks because they feared the spread of such news would be detrimental to business and how the nation viewed the city. During the 1927 Mississippi River flood, city leaders and newspaper editors conspired to minimize the risk of flooding. They understood that if the city were deemed a flooding risk, people would not want to invest in the city in the future. If anything, historic New Orleans was a city that wanted nothing less than the label of victim. But this too was an extreme way of wanting others to look at us. It was dishonest because at times, we did need help and it was a public danger to come to the city.

Today, though, the victim mentality reigns in the Crescent City. I don't know when this philosophy took hold -- and it has taken hold throughout socioeconomic boundaries, from the inner city to Mandeville to Kenner to the Garden District. I did not think much about this issue until recently, when a friend from out of state made a comment about it. Since then, an incipient awareness that most New Orleanians think they are victims and that the nation is out to get them has emerged in my mind. How else do you explain the initial reaction of the recent Saints scandal by the general populace?

Some are saying that the NFL is out to get the Saints because we were once lovable losers and rose beyond our station. The NFL is putting us back in our rightful place, they say. Others blame Mr. Goodell, saying he unfairly targeted the Saints and that other programs exist elsewhere. Goodell is evil to them, and he needs to be punished. Only people who have been unjustly punished could think these thoughts. Or people immersed in a mentality of victimhood.

And I think when we look objectively at the facts in this case, namely, that the Saints had a pay-for knockout program instituted, encouraged, run, and hidden by coaches and the GM, we can reach one conclusion: that the Saints were not unjustly punished. The franchise lived by a sword, lied about it, and are being punished by the sword. There's no room for victimhood here because we, not the NFL, not Mr. Goodell, are at fault. "