Category: New Orleans

Terry Bradshaw interested in buying Saints
Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw said Wednesday he wants to put a potential ownership group together that would attempt to buy the New Orleans Saints and keep them in Louisiana, where Bradshaw grew up.
“I’m supporting the citizens of Louisiana who don’t deserve to lose the Saints because of a hurricane,” said Bradshaw, who starred for Louisiana Tech before winning four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Now that is a great idea. The best idea I’ve heard about the Saints’ future since this whole thing started.

I would imagine Bradshaw has some clout around the NFL. He and his investors ought to start putting pressure on Benson. I know Tom wants to give the Saints to his granddaughter and all, but I bet a big wad of cash is an even better inheritance than an incompetant football team with fans who now absolutely despise your family.

I have to remind myself that good things don’t happen to the Saints. But I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that Terry Bradshaw is the Grand Marshall of Endymion or Bacchus come February.

AntiQuickie, a rebuttal site for ESPN’s Page 2, is on track with their assessment of Tom Benson (and so is Page 2), but misses something really important.

Screw Tom Benson. He is such a baby, taking a swipe at a TV camera that regularly films him leaving the stadium. Was someone mad that over 61K showed up for that game? Don’t worry about a repeat of that. The Saints had season ticket holders waiting until the 3rd quarter to get into the game, spoiling the experience for many. I really think Benson has lost his mind.

Spoiling the experience? The team had already done that.

Those folks that didn’t get into the game until the 3rd quarter didn’t have to suffer through:

Continue reading A spoiled experience?

This is great. Tom Benson had a confrontation with a Saints fan with a camera in the fourth quarter of the Miami game. Benson hit the camera and said something nasty. His bodyguard kept his hand over the camera, while the fan kept saying “Come and get me, Benson! Come and get me!”

Here’s a quick summary:
Benson hits the camera
Fan: Way to go Benson, you’ll look real good on national TV now! Come get me I dare ya!
Benson: You’re just a prick, that’s what you are!
Fan: Then what are you?
Benson lunges again with fists clenched and his guards hold him back.

That’s priceless. Is Tom Benson a little stressed out? I guess it’s real hard on the soul to take advantage of a natural disaster and screw Saints fans who have been loyal for almost 30 years despite shoddy management, bad personnel decisions, and little (if any) success.

Here’s the link to the WWL-TV footage:
http://www.wwltv.com/perl/common/video/wmPlayer.pl?title=www.wwltv.com/1031benson.wmv

WASHINGTON – The Washington Post reports the NFL will consider relocating the Saints to Los Angeles if New Orleans is unable to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

The newspaper cites three sources familiar with the league’s deliberation on the matter.

The Saints have been based in San Antonio since they were forced out of the Crescent City by the damaging August hurricane.

But the sources say the league has no interest in the Texas city as a permanent home for the club.

Los Angeles is the second-largest television market in the country and has been without an NFL team since the Raiders moved back to Oakland after the 1994 season.

I’ve been reading ESPN and Sports Illustrated online today to try and find some more information about the call that ended the Saints’ chances for a win yesterday afternoon.

This is what it gets on ESPN:

Mike Furrey’s 67-yard interception return with 1:55 to go wrapped it up for the Rams (3-4), who are 1-1 in the last two games, both without Martz.

The Saints wanted to challenge the interception return but couldn’t because they were out of timeouts; although the play ended with 1:55 left, it began with 2:10 to go and the NFL only takes over after the two-minute warning. Tight end Ernie Conwell claimed he had been down before losing the ball.
“I would bet — well, I’m not a betting man — but I feel 99.9 percent confident that I had possession of the ball and that I was down by contact,” Conwell said. “I went over to the official and told him I had possession, that you guys have got to review that.”
Referee Mike Carey said the crew saw a “bobbling pass reception with no control. While the ball was still loose, it was taken away by the Rams for a touchdown.”

Sports Illustrated ran the exact same AP story.

Where’s the opinions here? Why is there not more criticism of the NFL for an obviously botched call that cost one of the teams the game? Oh that’s right. The Saints’ tenure as “America’s Team” is over. Remember Be a Saint? But not after they lose that “home game” to the Giants.

Chris Behrman did mildy criticize the NFL on the call on SportsCenter, but that was about it. The Saints, much like the Bengals, are expected to lose. It’s not worth making a big deal over. They would have lost anyway. Right?

Welcome to another week of Saints fans asking themselves if a Patriots, Steelers, Falcons, or Eagles tight end would have been down by contact.

What would the refs call if this guy had thrown that pass?

San Antonio is team’s likely home next season

Saints owner Tom Benson declared this week that nothing will be decided on the franchise’s future until after the season. But ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reports that, based on information from key league sources, the team has probably played its last game in New Orleans.

According to Mortensen, San Antonio is a likely home for 2006 and Los Angeles is the preferred destination beyond that. The NFL could still include New Orleans as a Super Bowl site when the city is reconstructed, and expansion might even be a possibility, but that’s 10 to 15 years away.

If the Saints relocate to San Antonio or elsewhere, New Orleans has only a slim chance of ever seeing another NFL team, according to a major sports consultant.

Continue reading It’s Over

Nagin blasts Saints owner for trying to move team

NEW ORLEANS — Mayor Ray Nagin disparaged Saints owner Tom Benson on Wednesday for working with San Antonio officials to permanently keep the NFL team in Texas.

The mayor’s comments came after the departures of two top Saints executives who were supportive of keeping the Saints in Louisiana. Nagin is concerned that San Antonio officials said publicly that Benson is working with them to relocate the franchise to Texas.

“We want our Saints, we may not want the owner back,” Nagin said while attending the reopening of Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter.

Continue reading Nagin for Head Coach

Bars won’t open for Saints games

When the New Orleans Saints play four games at LSU’s Tiger Stadium, the bars in East Baton Rouge Parish will be closed.

The Metro Council refused Wednesday to lift the Sunday closure rule, citing feedback from residents.

“Every e-mail and call that I have received on the issue has been against this. My constituents do not want to become New Orleans. They don’t want to progress in that way,” Council member Martha Jane Tassin said.

I’m not even going to make the joke that is so obvious.

Needless to say, I’ll certainly be drinking this Sunday.