New Orleans Saints

The brainchild of local sports entrepreneur Dave Dixon, who also founded the Louisiana Superdome and the USFL, the Saints were actually secretly born in a backroom deal brought about by Congressman Hale Boggs, Senator Russell Long and NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle. The NFL needed congressional approval of the proposed AFL-NFL merger. Dixon and a local civic group had been seeking a NFL franchise for over 5 years, and had hosted record crowds to NFL exhibition games. To seal the merger, Rozelle arrived in New Orleans within a week, and announced on November 1, 1966 that the NFL officially had awarded the city of New Orleans an NFL franchise. Named for the great jazz song most identified with New Orleans "When the Saints Go Marching In," the franchise was announced in a great coincidence on November 1st, which is the Catholic All Saints’ Day. Boggs’ Congressional committee in turn quickly approved the NFL merger. John W. Mecom, Jr., a young oilman from Houston, became the team’s first majority stockholder. The team’s colors, black and gold, symbolized both Mecom’s and New Orleans’ strong ties to the oil ("black gold") industry.[citation needed] Trumpeter Al Hirt was part owner of the team, and his rendition of "When the Saints Go Marching In" was made the official fight song. That first season started with a 94 yard opening kickoff return for a touchdown by John Gilliam, but the Saints lost that game 2713 to the Los Angeles Rams at Tulane Stadium. Their first season record was 311, which set an NFL record for most wins by an expansion team. However, they could not manage to finish as high as second in their division until 1979. That 1979 team and the 1983 team were the only ones to even finish at .500 until 1987. One of the franchise’s shining moments came on November 8, 1970, when Tom Dempsey kicked an NFL record-breaking 63-yard field goal to defeat the Detroit Lions by a score of 1917 in the final seconds of the game. This record, although equaled 29 years later by Jason Elam of the Denver Broncos, has yet to be broken. In 1980, the Saints lost their first 14 games, prompting local sportscaster Bernard "Buddy D" Diliberto to advise Saints supporters to wear paper bags over their heads at the team’s home games; many bags rendered the club’s name as the "’Aints" rather than the "Saints." The practice of wearing a bag over one’s head then spread rapidly, first to fans of other poorly performing teams within the NFL, and ultimately to those of other American team sports, and has become a firmly established custom throughout the United States. Mora era Current Saints owner Tom Benson acquired the franchise in 1985, and hired Jim Finks as general manager and Jim Mora as head coach. That combination provided the Saints with their first-ever winning record and playoff appearance, going 123 in 1987, which had one fewer game than normal due to a players’ strike. Another playoff berth would follow in 1990, and the club’s first division title came in 1991. During Mora’s tenure the Saints made the playoffs four times, with teams marked by strong defenses led by the "Dome Patrol" linebacking corps, but they were never able to win a playoff game. Mora coached the Saints until the middle of the 1996 season, when he stepped down halfway through a 313 season. Ditka era After the end of the 1996 season, ironically as Diliberto had suggested before Mora’s resignation, former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka was hired to replace Mora. Although this initially generated a lot of excitement among Saints fans, Ditka’s tenure ended up being a failure. The Saints went 610 in their first two seasons under Ditka (1997 and 1998). During the 1999 NFL Draft, Ditka traded all of his picks for that season, as well as the first-round and third-round picks for the following season, to the Washington Redskins in order to draft University of Texas Heisman Trophy running back Ricky Williams in the first round. Ditka and Williams had a mock wedding picture taken to commemorate the occasion. However, Ditka, most of his coaching staff, and general manager Bill Kuharich were fired at the end of the 1999 season due to the club’s 313 record. Haslett era Jim Haslett held the post from 2000 to 2005. In his first year, he took the team to the playoffs but lost to the Minnesota Vikings a week after beating the St. Louis Rams for the team’s first ever playoff win. After winning the 2000 NFL Executive of the Year Award, General Manager Randy Mueller was fired between the 2001 and 2002 seasons without explanation by Benson. The Saints failed to make the playoffs in 2001 and 2002, although in the latter year they had the distinction of beating the eventual Super Bowl XXXVII champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in both of their regular season meetings, only the second team to do so in NFL history. In 2003, the Saints again missed the playoffs after finishing 88. The 2004 season started poorly for the Saints, as they went 24 through their first six games and 48 through their first twelve games. At that point Haslett’s job appeared to be in jeopardy; however, he managed to win the three straight games leading up to the season finale, leaving the Saints in playoff contention in the final week of the season. In week 17, the Saints defeated division rivals Carolina; however, the Saints needed other results to break their way and when the St. Louis Rams beat the New York Jets the Saints were eliminated despite having beaten the Rams, who finished with the same record. The Rams, Saints, and Vikings all were 88, with the Rams having a 75 conference record, Saints 66, and the Vikings 57. The Rams received the #1 wild-card due to having the best conference record out of the 3, followed by the Vikings due to the 3316 loss handed to the Saints in Week 3. Haslett was fired after the 2005 season, in which the Saints finished 313 and did not play one regular season contest in New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina. On January 17, 2006, the Saints hired Sean Payton as their new head coach. Effect of Hurricane Katrina Main article: Effect of Hurricane Katrina on the New Orleans Saints Due to the damage Hurricane Katrina caused to the Superdome and the New Orleans area, the Saints’ scheduled 2005 home opener against the New York Giants was moved to Giants Stadium. The remainder of their 2005 home games were split between the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, and LSU’s Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Payton era 2006: Homecoming and postseason For detailed information on the team’s 2006 season, see 2006 New Orleans Saints season. On March 23, the Saints announced that the team’s two 2006 preseason games were to be played at Shreveport, Louisiana and Jackson, Mississippi. After a $185 million renovation of the historic stadium, on April 6 the Saints released their 2006 schedule, with all home games scheduled to be played at the Superdome. On September 19, Saints owner Tom Benson announced that the team had sold out the Louisiana Superdome for the entire season with season tickets alone (70,001 seats), a first in franchise history.[citation needed] The September 25, 2006 home opener, the first home game in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, was won by the Saints 233 against the Atlanta Falcons, who were undefeated in the 2006 season at that time. The attendance for the game was a sellout crowd of 70,003. Meanwhile, the broadcast of the game was ESPN’s highest-ever rated program to date, with an 11.8 rating, and viewership by 10,850,000 homes. It was the most-watched program for the night, broadcast or cable, and was the second-highest rated cable program of all time at the time. Green Day and U2 performed "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and "The Saints Are Coming" , respectively, before the game. The game received a 2007 ESPY award for "Best Moment in Sports." On December 17, 2006, the Saints clinched their third division title and their first NFC South title in franchise history. For the first time in Saints’ history, they clinched their NFC South title on their home field. Sean Payton became the second consecutive Saints coach to win a division title in his first season. After a loss by the Dallas Cowboys to the Philadelphia Eagles on Christmas Day 2006, the Saints clinched a first-round playoff bye for the first time in franchise history. After the first-round bye, the Saints beat the Philadelphia Eagles 2724 in the Superdome in the 2006 Divisional Playoffs. No team had ever had such a poor record in the prior year (313) and then gone on to a league or conference championship game since the 1999 St. Louis Rams who advanced to win their first Super Bowl after being 412 the season before. Since the Saints’ only previous playoff win was in the wild card round, this was the farthest the Saints had ever advanced at the time. The victory was only the second playoff win in team history. The season ended on January 21, 2007 when the Saints lost 3914 to the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship game. 2007 Main article: 2007 New Orleans Saints season The Saints announced that for the second year in a row, the Louisiana Superdome had sold out every ticket for the season. Additionally, all luxury boxes had been sold out for the season.[citation needed] Both of these statistics are particularly surprising given that the city-proper has about 300,000 people or 150,000 fewer people than July 2005 population data (though the metro area still accounts for 1.2 million people).[citation needed]. The first game of the season was against the defending Super Bowl XLI champion Indianapolis Colts. The Saints lost this game, 4110, and lost their next three games. In one of these three games, against the Tennessee Titans, the Saints lost running back Deuce McAllister for the season with his second career (second time in three seasons) ACL tear. After winning their first game, against the Seattle Seahawks, two weeks later, the team went on a four-game winning streak to bring their record to an even 44. After reaching 77, the Saints lost their final two games to finish 79. 2009 Main article: 2009 New Orleans Saints season The 2009 season was the team’s most successful season, which culminated in the franchise’s first league championship win against the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV. After becoming 130 with their win over the Atlanta Falcons, it marked the Saints’ best start to a season in its franchise history. The result clinched an NFC playoff berth, a bye in the first round of the playoffs. By winning their first 13 games, the Saints also set the record for the longest undefeated season opening (130) by an NFC team since the AFLFL merger, eclipsing the previous record (120) held by the 1985 Chicago Bears. The team advanced to the 2009 NFC Championship game where they defeated the Minnesota Vikings 3128 in overtime to win their first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history. Television ratings for Super Bowl 44 were the highest for any TV program, sports or otherwise, in history. Since the win, two media writers have referred to the Saints as "America’s Team", as their successful bid to win the Super Bowl was seen by many to represent the city’s resurgence after the devastating Hurricane Katrina. Logos and uniforms Logo (2000resent) New Orleans Saints uniform combination New Orleans Saints alternate uniform: 2002 season  www.officialfootballseahawks.com/Authentic-12th-Fan-Jersey Articles by:http://www.articlesbase.com/ethics-articles/new-orleans-saints-3083722.html