"Aints," No More

You’ve gotta love the New Orleans Saints. They are perhaps the most sad-sack victory-starved team in the annals of the National Football Legaue, possessing virtually no claims to glory in their entire history (other than having had a Manning play for them) and perenially regarded as basement dwellers in their division before the season even starts. Of course, they play in what has got to be the most annually overhyped division in the league, the not-so-dreaded NFC South—Carolina and Atlanta are always touted as Super Bowl contenders until games that count start to be played and their potential implodes like the publicity surrounding snake movies, and Tampa Bay still seems shell-shocked by the fact that they won a Super Bowl, to the point that they don’t ever seem to concentrate on the post-Lombardi-Trophy years...and the Saints, well...they push the brooms and sweep the floors in this pathetic division, year after year after year.

But now they’re 3-0, having just waxed those magnificently overrated Falcons—Michael Vick is the most exciting player in the NFL, but the rest of this team is roughly as exciting as any random Nathaniel Hawthorne novel—in the first sellout crowd in the Superdome since a bee-atch named Katrina came calling. They signed Drew Brees in the off-season and drafted Reggie Bush last spring, after the (0-3) Texans passed in favor of a lineman (who is not related to Tony Mandarich, in case you were wondering). They have a new coach and have finally said fare-thee-well to Aaron Brooks, whose cannon of an arm is the only reason he can still find work.

And 3-0 has to feel good. It’s as many wins as they amassed in 16 tries last year. There’s a problem, though, and that problem is the schedule.

Anybody looked at their next thirteen games? Here they are, in no particular order other than chronological, though I have omitted dates (‘cause it just doesn’t matter when these next thirteen games happen):

At Carolina (Everyone’s but my NFC Super Bowl pick)
Vs. Tampa Bay (0-3 currently, but how long do you think that will last?)
Vs. Philadelphia (Currently possessed of the best offense in the league)
Between these two games is their bye week. Whew.
Vs. Baltimore (How bad do the Titans hate that they treated McNair so bad?)
At Tampa Bay
At Pittsburgh (Mommy?)
Vs. Cincinnati (Best team in the AFC not called the Colts)
At Atlanta (No way is this one pretty—it’s a low-rent Jaguars/Colts game)
Vs. San Francisco (Saints record going into this game: 4-7; after: 5-7)
At Dallas (Key game for Cowboys, if the TO tumor has not metastasized)
Vs. Washington (Winnable, a rarity at this point)
At the New York Football Giants (Forget it—NYG is going for homefield)
Vs. Carolina (Winnable—the Panthers have imploded by now, too)

Ugh. Who wrote this schedule?

I know, I know, it was a computer in Paul Tagliabue’s underground lair, but come on, man! This is worse than NYG’s schedule, and the Football Giants have way more talent, an experienced coach, and at least a bit of the taste of winning in their mouths so that they can make a run at going deep in the playoffs. And that Manning pedigree. If Jeremy Shockey can keep his ignoarnt mouth closed, this team has a chance to be very, very good.

I’d love to be wrong, because I love the Saints. I have been a Chicago Cubs fan for 20 years and know the joy of rooting for the underdog (I also happen to dig IU football, if you can believe it), and the Saints are it in the NFL. I dig on Drew Brees, too, even though he went to Purdue (anytime you see a cat from an Indiana school other than Notre Dame make it in the NFL, you have to give up the props, right?), and Reggie Bush is a stud.

These guys are looking at 8-8 like it’s the Powerball jackpot and they bet the extra buck. But you know what? A couple breaks here and there—running the table in the division and getting a couple of wins against the NFC East near the end of the season—and these guys are in the playoffs, and might have a shot to go deep. And that’s assuming they don’t go Big Ben and Willie Parker on the league like the Steelers did last year, which would mean that all bets are off and the New York Football Giants better have a steady eye on the rearview.

You’ve gotta love the New Orleans Saints. Is there any more drama around a comeback NFL story this year?