Sports Then and Now

The Saints winning the Super Bowl was one of the good sports moments of 2010.

2010 has been an interesting year in the world of sports. As is typically the case, there have been some wonderful and memorable moments, but also some that we all wish could be erased from the memory banks.

Below is a look at some of the good, bad and ugly from 2010:

The Good:

New Orleans Saints Win the Super Bowl: For nearly 40 years the New Orleans Saints were the NFL’s epitome of the phrase “Nice guys always finish last.”

From the time the Saints entered the NFL in 1967 the franchise seemed to spend more time on the blooper reels than in the highlight films. It took 20 years before they posted a winning season and another 13 years before claiming their first playoff victory.

When Hurricane Katrina hit the region in 2005 there were some who believed that New Orleans could no longer support an NFL franchise. Yet, when the Superdome reopened in 2006 the people of New Orleans completely embraced their team and the players did the same for the city.

They reached the NFC Championship Game that year, but lost to the Bears and over the next two seasons slipped back into mediocrity and out of the national conscious.

After posting an 8-8 season in 2008 there was little expectation that the Saints would be a serious championship contender during the 2009 campaign. However, under the direction of quarterback Drew Brees the Saints came out firing on all cylinders and reeled off 13 straight victories to start the season and earn homefield advantage throughout the NFL playoffs.

Hosting the Minnesota Vikings in what would end up being one of the most exciting NFC Championship games ever, the Saints won 31-28 and advanced to the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history. Read the rest of this entry →

One of the NFL’s most bitter rivalries was taken up a notch in the 1991 NFL Playoffs when the Atlanta Falcons visit the Louisiana Superdome to take on their NFC West division rival, the New Orleans Saints.

The Saints won their first division title in 1991 with an 11-5 record for the team’s third playoff appearance and fourth winning season in five years, all under the helm of head coach Jim Mora.

The Saints were lead by their defense, the famed “Dome Patrol”, a linebacking corps that consisted of Rickey Jackson, Sam Mills, Vaughn Johnson, and Pat Swilling, which allowed the fewest points and forced the most turnovers in 1991.

The Saints had failed to win a game in their first two playoff appearances, but were favored to beat their division rivals from Atlanta.

The Falcons went 10-6 in 1991 for their first winning season and playoff appearance in a full 16-game season since 1980 (Atlanta made the playoffs in 1982 with a 5-4 in a strike-shortened season).

The Falcons were lead by head coach Jerry Glanville who was in his second season as head coach from the Falcons after coaching the Houston Oilers for four seasons and leading them to three straight playoff appearances.

Glanville’s Falcons reflected his personality; a brash, outspoken team that featured classic trash talkers such as wide receiver Andre Rison and cornerback Deion Sanders. Read the rest of this entry →

Tom Dempsey gave the Saints an improbable victory with his field goal 40 years ago.

The New Orleans Saints didn’t have a lot to celebrate during their first two decades in the NFL, but they did enjoy one special moment 40-years ago this week when their improbable kicker made a seemingly impossible kick to defeat the Detroit Lions 19-17 on November 8, 1970.

Even during an era when straight-on kickers were still the majority in the NFL, Tom Dempsey was not your pro-typical NFL player.  Dempsey was 6-foot-2, but weighed more than 250 pounds. He also was born without fingers on his right hand or toes on his right foot.

Nonetheless, Dempsey played football at Palomar Community College in San Diego and then somehow found his way into the NFL with the New Orleans Saints.

As a rookie in 1969, Dempsey earned first-team All-Pro honors and appeared in the Pro Bowl while ranking fifth in league with 99 points. He led the NFL with 41 field goal attempts and was third in the league with 22 successful attempts.

In 1970 Dempsey and the Saints were struggling when they hosted Detroit in week eight. Dempsey had converted only five field goals through the first seven games and the Saints were 1-5-1 on the season. Read the rest of this entry →

Since their arrival into the National Football League in 1967, the New Orleans Saints had earned the reputation as the most notorious loser in the league.

In their first 20 seasons, the Saints had never had a winning season or been to the postseason with their best seasons being in 1979 and 1983 where the team finished 8-8 in both seasons.

In 1986, Saints owner Tom Benson hired Jim Finks to become the team’s new general manager, who then proceeded to hire Jim Mora as head coach.

Mora came from the USFL’s Philadelphia Stars where he coached the team to two championships in the league’s three-year history.

As the league folded in 1986, Mora was able to convince former USFL players such as quarterback Bobby Herbert and linebackers Sam Mills and Vaughn Johnson to join him in New Orleans.

Mills and Johnson joined veteran linebacker Rickey Jackson and rookie Pat Swilling to form the famous “Dome Patrol”.

The Saints went 7-9 in 1986, and then split the first two games of the 1987 season before the NFL players went on strike.

Week 3 games were cancelled and never made up, but games in weeks 4-6 were played by replacement players.

The Saints’ replacements went 2-1, giving the team an overall record of 3-2 when the regular players came back for their week 7 showdown against the San Francisco 49ers.

The Saints lost the game 24-22 as Morten Andersen missed a last-second field goal that would have won the game.

In his postgame press conference, Mora proclaimed that the Saints “ain’t good enough” to beat a team like the 49ers.

The speech seemed to light a fire under the Saints as they won their next four games, including a 26-24 win over the 49ers in San Francisco.

The Saints were 7-3 and had five games to go in the regular season to give their long-suffering fans a winning season.

For week 12, the Saints traveled to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers, who were 6-4 entering this game despite the fact they had the lowest-rated quarterback in the league, Mark Malone. Read the rest of this entry →

Of all the games that were played during Week 14 of the 1980 NFL season, the matchup between the New Orleans Saints and the San Francisco 49ers seemed to be one of the least compelling games.

The 49ers were 5-8 entering this game and appeared headed toward their fourth straight losing season and seventh in the last eight seasons.  San Francisco had started the season 3-0 before losing eight games in a row.

Second-year head coach Bill Walsh was trying to move ahead with second-year quarterback Joe Montana as his quarterback of the future, who had traded starts throughout the season with Steve DeBerg.  Montana would get the start against the Saints.

While the 49ers’ recent history had been rather bad, the history of the New Orleans Saints had been all bad.

Ever since their inception in 1967, the Saints had never recorded a winning season.  However, the Saints had high hopes for the 1980 season as they were coming off an 8-8 season the year before and were favorites to win the NFC Western Division, thanks to Pro Bowlers Archie Manning and Chuck Muncie.

But things went bad from the start as the Saints as they lost their first 13 games of the season, and during the stretch they traded Muncie to the San Diego Chargers after the fourth game of the season.

The losing continued and after a 27-7 Monday night loss to the Los Angeles Rams, head coach Dick Nolan was fired and replaced on an interim basis by Dick Stanfel.

The Saints were so bad that New Orleans sportscaster Bernard “Big D” Diliberto encouraged all Saints fans to wear paper bags over their heads at the Saints’ home games at the Louisiana Superdome.  One of the fans that wore a bag on his head wrote “Aints” on his bag on the nickname stuck to the franchise.

But the Week 14 game against the 49ers in San Francisco appeared to be the Saints’ day as they jumped out to a 35-7 halftime lead, thanks to an impressive first half by Manning as he completed 14 of 22 passes for 248 yards and threw three touchdowns, two in the first quarter, Ike Harris for 33 yards and Henry Childs for 21 yards, and one more right before the end of the half to Harris again, this time for 41 yards. Read the rest of this entry →

Drew Brees secured his place among the NFL elite with his MVP performance in Super Bowl XLIV.

No, the headline above is not a typo, the New Orleans Saints are lovable losers no more. After 43 years, the New Orleans Saints have reached the NFL mountaintop with a 31-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV.

When Peyton Manning and the Colts marched methodically down the field to score the first 10 points of the game it looked like the Saints might be in for a long day.

However, this is not your father’s New Orleans Saints and instead of folding under pressure, this New Orleans team responded with spunk, determination and guile.

Inspired by their head coach, Sean Payton, who made a number of bold decisions that got the Saints back in the game, New Orleans came storming back to seize control.

Even after failing on a fourth and goal play late in the first half, the Saints rallied to make the game 10-6 at intermission.

Then, Payton made his boldest call as they started the second half with an onside kick. Had the Colts recovered, they would have had great field position and might have been able to put the game away.

Instead, the Saints recovered and quickly marched down the field to take their first lead of the game 13-10.

Illustrating why he is among the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, Peyton Manning led the Colts right back down the field to take a 17-13 lead.

With the Colts clinging to a 17-16 lead, they had a chance to extend their advantage, but a 51-yard field goal by Matt Stover faded to the left at the end and fell no good. Read the rest of this entry →