Mediaboss Marketing

GLENDALE, AZ - DECEMBER 18: Wide receiver Brandin Cooks

Tyler Raymonds Saints Mock Draft 1.0 by Tyler Raymond

Film Study: A.J. Bouye Could Be Answer For Saints by Ty Anania

GLENDALE, AZ DECEMBER 18: Wide receiver Brandin Cooks

Its a confusing situation and one that is an ongoing story. But over the past couple of days Twitter has been all, well, atwitter over an exchange between Saints receivers Michael Thomas and Brandin Cooks.

Cooks has been the subject of trade rumors of late.The Saints arereportedly shopping his services in exchange for draft picks. Two of the leading suitors are said to be the Tennessee Titans and Philadelphia Eagles.

A good breakdown on the story by Eliot Shorr-Parks was carried on the website NJ.com doing due diligence from an Eagles perspective and can be found here.

To summarize, Michael Thomas put out the following tweet on Sunday:

Cooks, taking the comment personally sent out a now deleted tweet saying Trigger fingers turn to Twitter fingers.

ATLANTA, GA JANUARY 01: Michael Thomas

Michael Thomas added a reply stating that he was simply tweeting lyrics from a song but responses to his initial tweet were liked from his account suggesting Cooks was being addressed directly.

None of what happened next is any longer available online. Some of what were reporting here is hearsay from individuals who say they followed the post.

Lewis took to Instagram Live for his rants. He lookedto be in what wellcharitably describe as less than ideal playing shape. In the post he was working out in a kids playground.

NEW ORLEANS, LA OCTOBER 04: Keenan Lewis

Lewis allegedly got Michael Thomas on the phone, on speaker, and got him talking about coaches and teammates. Tweets describe elements of the phone call in which Thomas allegedly called Willie Snead a role player and Saints defensive coordinator Dennis Allen a bum.

All of this would seem to show a less than team like atmosphere in the Saints locker room. It puts Michael Thomas in a pretty bad light. Up to this point his public persona has been that of a humble though very gifted athlete and a consummate team player.

Sean Payton has publicly spoken at length about the desire to bring character guys and locker room guys into the Black and Gold through free agency and the draft following the tumult surrounding former Saints Junior Galette and Kenny Stills. This series of events would seem to cast doubt on whether or not theyve accomplished that.

Things got weird following a game in December against the Rams in which Cooks took to Twitter to publicly complain about not being enough of a focus on the offense. At the time it was chalked up to him being hyper competitive. But the incident caused rumors of discontent to spread. It seemed to manythat rookie standout Michael Thomas was stealing his thunder.

NEW ORLEANS, LA NOVEMBER 13: Willie Snead IV

Now those rumors are being given new life and playing out in front of a national media with a thirst for just this kind of TMZ-like story. And Keenan Lewis, like an ex you had forgotten about who finds out youre in a new relationship and seeks to sink it by any means necessary, came out of nowhere to make things spin further out of control.

The team leaders need to get vocal and get involved so things dont go any further than they already have. Thats on Brees, Strief, Jordan and Vaccaro by the way. The veteran leadership of the team.

And the agents for these players need to step in. They need to illustrate that this airingof dirty laundry via public social media does nothing but dimishreturns for them in the long run. Nobody wants this kind of drama on their team.

One things for certain: Cooks wont be in a Saints jersey in 2017.

With the Saints currently negotiating with Willie Snead on a contract extension, the free agency period about to open, the team hoping to get a good return on Cooks via tradeand a losing franchise needing to do everything it can to turn itself around, none of this could be coming at a worse time.

Its time for Mickey Loomis and Sean Payton to get out in front of this story. They need to put it to bed.

Roy Anderson contributes to Who Dat Dish. He hosts the daily New Orleans Saints podcast Locked on Saints available on Google Play, iTunes, Stitcher, Audioboom.com, and TuneIn.

Continue reading here:
New Orleans Saints Need to Control Social Media Dumpster Fire - Who Dat Dish