Yes, I said it, the Saints are NOT “Worst to First”. The Saints were a good team before this season and will be after this season. We need to stop fawning over the Saints like they just rebuilt New Orleans all by themselves.
The New Orleans Saints have been playing good football for a couple years now and Drew Brees is not a new acquisition. Perhaps the good folks of the sports world just wanted an underdog to pull for.
Personally, I’m not buying what the Saints are selling and I have my reasons.
The Mastermind
The “evil mastermind” behind the Saints’ attack is Sean Payton, and he’s not famous for just coaching the Saints.
Sean Payton was also at the center of Bill Parcells’ “No offense to the Orientals” comment when he was with the Cowboys. Parcells called Payton by name and said “we” come up with these “Jap plays”.
I know that everyone has said or will say something inappropriate, but Sean Payton was involved in a firestorm that indirectly implicated him in making racially defaming remarks to the Cowboys coaching staff.
Who do you think was drawing up those “Jap plays”? Oh yeah, Sean Payton was.
Now Sean Payton is in New Orleans drawing up an entire offense and looking like a fiend at the same time. Take a look at this dude and tell me he seems even remotely likable.
My wife took one look at him and said, “That guy scares me”. I rest my case.
The Reality
Hurricane Katrina was bad. I remember watching the coverage of the landfall and the aftermath. However, it didn’t happen yesterday.
The Saints team didn’t rebuild the city by themselves. In fact, the Saints went 3-13 in 2005. That’s nothing short of a “not-feelgood” story. If the Saints were going to “save the city” that would have happened in ’05.
Today we can say that they are “bringing to city together” or “making everyone believe”. But…
…let’s please STOP acting like the Saints Offensive Line stood guard in front of the city to beat up Katrina.
Flip their 2005 record around and you have their 2009 record: 13-3. The Saints are a great story and have a very good team, but they are not the saviors of the city.
As much as I hate the Patriots–and find them to be a classless organization– they won the Super Bowl after 9/11…and they are called THE PATRIOTS! Now THAT is a defining moment.
The Patriots brought an entire country together. They did “save the nation’s psyche” in a sense.
That’s the reality of the situation. The Saints are nice, but this isn’t a defining moment.
What Does “Worst to First” Look Like?
When the Braves went to the World Series in 1991 they were truly a “Worst to First” team. They were the doormat of the league and hadn’t played well in FOREVER.
No one gave a rat’s ass about the Braves because there was no reason too. The Braves had to wait to see the results of a Dodgers game on the last day of the season to get into the playoffs.
They beat the Pirates in dramatic fashion, and came within one Kent Hrbek “pull of Ron Gant off first base” of winning the World Series.
The Braves were the story of the season. The Twins won the World Series, but the Braves were still a bigger deal.
The Braves went 65-97 in 1990 to finish last in the old NL West. In 1991 they finished 94-68 to win the old NL West.
True, the Saints were in last place in the NFC South in 2008, but they were NOT the doormats of the league. They hadn’t been since they “unsaved the city” in 2005.
The Owner
This is my final rant on this topic. Tom Benson has threatened to move this team a thousand times, and I’m sick of it.
Now that the Saints are in the Super Bowl Tom Benson is milking this for everything that it’s worth.
We’re forgetting what a jackass he was in dealing with the city in negotiating to keep the team in New Orleans.
Basically he hijacked the city of New Orleans in making waves to keep the team there. If he had moved the team to Los Angeles or San Antonio we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
Now, Tom Benson is going to get rich (again) off a team that he wanted to move from its home.
Nothing is more disgusting than his smug grin. It’s as if he believes HE saved the city.
The Comparison
The Atlanta Falcons went to the Super Bowl in 1998 after beating the Vikings on a field goal. Sound familiar?
Then all hell broke loose. Eugene Robinson got pinched while trying to pick up a hooker in Miami, and the entire team spent the night with him instead of sleeping…before the Super Bowl.
The Falcons got trounced by a superior team and a superior Quarterback. Do we see the similarities?
The Super Bowl is in Miami. New Orleans is a “party city” and that “partyness” is going to Miami. I’m not saying that anyone from the Saints will get arrested, but they’re too hyped up.
The night before the Super Bowl the Saints will be loving it. The Colts will be sleeping.
Check in next Friday and we’ll see if the “superior” Quarterback–Peyton Manning–can repeat the previous Miami Super Bowl triumph of an AFC team over the NFC South Champion.
You see where I’m going with this, but I still need time to think.