NEW ORLEANS - Tom Benson, owner of The Super Bowl winners the New Orleans Saints has just announced that he has decided to change the name of his NFL football team
Benson, who owns several Chevrolet dealerships in San Antonio, along with 782 Taco Bandito Diners in Texas, Louisiana, and California, said that he had been contacted by various New Orleans residents, businessmen, and fans and asked to change the name in keeping with the tremendous publicity that the city has received from the BP Oil Spill Tar Ball Incident.
At first, Benson said that he was somewhat hesitant to make the name change because he felt that he did not want to openly take advantage of the accidental oil spill situation.
But he noted that after he met with 138 of his 139 stockholders, they all assured him that they were 100 percent behind the idea.
They pointed out that the same thing happened with the NBA's Miami Heat. At first the team was going to be called The Miami Swampers, but then some of the city's most influential businessman suggested that the owner, Mickey Arison, capitalize on the hot, sizzling Miami heat which is as much a part of Miami as Cuban cigars, Cuban music, and of course Cubans.
In a related story. Tom Benson has said that there were a few members of the NAACP who were not thrilled with him changing the name to The Tar Saints due to the 1950s negative connotation that the word 'tar' has. But he said that they relented after he offered to give them each a 50 percent parking discount in stadium parking.
