Changed history

It's bad enough that Times-Picayune writers routinely include the name of the Superdome's "naming rights" sponsor when referring to the stadium in articles although they are under no real obligation to do so. Their editors will tell you that the paper's style guide calls for a full official name in the first reference to a facility within any article. But this cop-out requires us to accept that the practice of selling off the full official name of a public building to foreign corporate interlopers for the benefit of one parasitic nominal owner of the publicly subsidized local sports franchise is a legitimate activity in the first place.

Anyway, if they're going to do that, is it too much to ask that they not apply this questionable nomenclature retroactively? For example, the event described by James Varney here did not occur in a building bearing the name he gives it.

In two games against the Giants as the New Orleans Saints' head coach, Payton has administered sound beatings to Big Blue, thrashing them at home and on the road. The last of those came in 2009 when the two teams, both undefeated, met in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and the Saints whipped the Giants by three touchdowns in what proved the true launching point for New Orleans' championship run.