The New Orleans Saints are set to appear in court in an effort to keep hundreds of emails away from the public.

According to NOLA.com, the emails allegedly show team executives assisting with PR damage control for the local New Orleans Roman Catholic archdiocese in an effort to manage the "fallout from a burgeoning sexual abuse crisis."

Attorneys representing around "two dozen men suing the church" say that the Saints, whose owner is devoutly Catholic, helped the Archdiocese in a “pattern and practice of concealing its crimes.”

Obviously, the Saints should not be in the business of assisting the Archdiocese, and the Saints' public relations team is not in the business of managing the public relations of criminals engaged in pedophilia. The Saints realize that if the documents at issue are made public, this professional sports organization also will be smearing itself.

A special master appointed by the courts will hear arguments from the New Orleans Saints to prevent the public release of emails showing team execs offering public relations help to the Archdiocese. The full list of Saints execs wasn't listed but according to reports, "multiple team personnel were also said to have used their team-affiliated email addresses to advise church officials about their messaging."

how to soften the impact of the archdiocese’s release of a list of clergy members 'credibly accused' of sexual abuse.

Read the full developing story here at NOLA.com

More From 99.9 KTDY