NFL chief calls Saints ‘great corporate citizens’ amid church abuse scandal

Roger Goodell speaks as emails detail how team helped to spin coverage of clergy sexual abuse scandal

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the New Orleans Saints are great corporate citizens" despite revelations in unearthed emails detailing how the football team's owner and other top executives coordinated with the city's Roman Catholic archdiocese in a campaign to soften media coverage of a decades-old clergy-abuse scandal engulfing the church.

Saints owner Gayle Benson and other key lieutenants are very involved in this community, and they are great corporate citizens", Goodell said after media outlets provided the most complete accounts yet detailing the team's decision to help the New Orleans church's messaging about a scandal that has prompted state police and federal agents to jointly open a child sex-trafficking investigation into the archdiocese.