Hi,

I am a Saints fan who moonlights as a draft junkie since just about every year the draft is all that we have to look forward to. Unfortunately, the Saints have screwed that up more times than not, also.

Anyway, I like the site.

I look forward to some intelligent discussion and analysis.

Herb

Welcome, Herb! Pleased you found us. I know what it must feel like being a Saints fan these days. I suffered through plenty of years like that with the "Patsies" as we used to call them. Things will change. All you can do is head up, right?

Welcome to the site!

I hope you're right.

It has been a surreal year for us. As we were finally starting to get the corpses of our loved ones released from FEMA (many people are still waiting for bodies to get released from the morgues) and finally getting to the point where we could return to our homes and start to repair, the owner of the Saints started threatening to move the team permanently to San Antonio.

Note that his attorney started talking about Benson moving the team to San Antonio prior to training camp (well before Katrina.) This had a chilling effect on new season ticket sales and renewals and unfortunately has given many the completely false impression that Saints fans are not supporting the team.

The truth is that Saints fans have supported this team for almost 40 years through some fo the most hapless front offices and coaching staffs. Tom Benson has always looked at the Saints as a way make millions and millions of doallars. He has no interest in fielding a championship team. He prefers to do everything on the cheap in order to field a team only competative enough to generate an acceptable level of ticket sales and a reasonable number of home sellouts (prior to Katrina the Saints had a string of 38 home game sellouts in a 70,000+ seat stadium.)

Once the team starts getting successful, he always sabotages things by either firing key executives and assuming those duties himself or poisoning the waters by threatening to move if he does note get a new stadium ot taxpayer subsidies.

All of this ultimately translates to the product on the field. The Sainst seem to always draft for potential over productivity, chase after 3rd tier free agents, and hire coaches who are "up and comers" (meaning those who will command low dollar volume contracts.)

We just pray for a new owner that will sign a long term lease to keep the team in Louisiana for the foresseable future.

The next playoff win will increase our 38+ year playoff victory total by 100%.

Herb

Man, don't even get me started on Katrina and FEMA!!! It makes me so angry I could spit. But you are right, the Saints ownership has been exactly how you have descibed it for a long, long time.

It would be an absolute tragedy if they moved the team, because, as you said, Saints fans have been INCREDIBLY LOYAL to this franchise, and they deserve to be treated much, much better than they have been.