I don't know who Bayless is, but he sure has Benson and the Saints pegged.

My get-well wish for Louisiana -- as let-it-rain-diamonds as it might be -- is that Benson somehow will be shamed into selling the Saints to someone with the savvy and stability to turn them back into the pride of New Orleans. For now, you can buy only laughing stock in his Aints.

Then again, I brought up Benson's deficiencies the other day to an NFL general manager, who responded: "Well, he isn't alone. There are a number of Bensons in this league."

Fair point.

The late Tex Schramm, who for three decades ran the Dallas Cowboys (if not the league), once summed up the NFL's perennial losers this way: "You can't legislate intelligence."

Meaning, you can't pass enough last-shall-be-first rules to keep stupid owners from making stupid decisions. The league doesn't require prospective team buyers to go to Owner School or even to pass Football 101. All that matters is that a prospective owner has deep pockets, and that any skeletons are locked deep in his or her closet.

In fact, you get the feeling that the football-smart owners quietly rub their hands together and think, "Fresh meat," when they approve a Tom Benson.