Girod Street End Zone

Claude Coupee
Lead Correspondent

Confirmation bias n. The tendency to favor information that confirms one’s preconceived notions or hypotheses, without regard to the veracity, quality or value of the factual information.

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Saints fans, I give you the 2010 Atlanta Falcons, ranked 7th in the NFL by Rick Gosselin in his pre-season (i.e. “early prediction”) rankings (he has the Saints 8th) and an incredible 5th in league by John Clayton (he has the Saints seventh).

Not to mention Mike and Mike know that Atlanta will win the NFC South this year.  Maybe I should just wait for the 2011 NBA playoffs.

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The Goat
GSEZ Founder

Or, as Jerry Romig would say, “HhrrrricK-KAYYYY…JACKK-sonnnn.”

Quite the year, getting a Lombardi and my all-time favorite Saint in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. 

Let us now consider a few thoughts that cross the mind at this wonderful time, upon Jackson’s induction last Saturday.  Note there is a possibility that some of these thoughts aren’t of the type usually found in other broadcast and finger media outlets….but that’s why you clicked on to the site.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Doesn’t it feel like we finally arrived as NFL fans?  That we’re finally not out there with out noses pressed up against the window, wondering what it feels like, what all the fuss is about?  That was our guy up there on the podium.   They were talking about the Saints, without any pity parties, or dumb qualifiers, or references to bagheads.  There was a true, original, 100% New Orleans Saint getting honored as such.   Maybe there wasn’t a conspiracy after all.

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Claude Coupee
Lead Correspondent

It’s already started.  They just can’t help themselves. 

Every (well, not “every,” I just can’t resist the melodrama) print  and broadcast sports pundit alive is falling all over themselves to predict the Saints not to repeat as Super Bowl champions.

(What does “print media” mean anymore?  We need a new word for “people who want you to write what they type instead of listen to what they say.”  I might go with “read media”, although “finger media” probably says it best.)

It’s not a “no respect” thing, it’s a “desperate to distinguish myself while not taking too many chances about being wrong” thing.  Of course, since The Goat called the Saints as the no. 1 NFC seed right before the season opener last year, we know what not being wrong feels like.   It’s not that we were desperate to distinguish ourselves, but we do want to be right.

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The Goat
GSEZ Founder

It took a good five, six months after the season for it to dawn on me just how mighty a force this Saints franchise has become.

The New Orleans Saints:  so powerful that people all over south Louisiana now freely admit that they have read at least one book, maybe two.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Yes, Super Bowl Excelleyevee is in the can, the Lombardi Trophy has almost finished its Beerman-and-Marine-aided Gulf Coast victory lap, and it’s really just time to move on.  But before we get officially rolling on your 2010 New Orleans Saints, just one more little link to put you in the mood.  Safe for work, but you might want to keep the volume down:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0LEBo_4RUA&feature=related

Now, put that 31-17 score behind you but stick that feeling in front of you like a carrot out ahead of a mule, and let’s talk about getting another one.

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James T. Leeson, Jr., 1930-2010

As my friend Thom Jurkovich noted, it probably is too hard to really explain Leeson, you either get it or you don’t, so I’ll leave it to the deeper talents of guys like Alex Heard and Charlie Euchner who have so eloquently eulogized him and analyzed his legacy, and just contribute to the broader historical Leeson database three particular image-stories that come to mind. 

For those many of you who don’t understand these references, just know that last week a great man named Jim Leeson took his leave of us, at least until we catch up in our own due time.  In addition to his many generous acts of mentorship and kindness, he left me with one specific parting gift:  the chance to point to an obituary (with picture, mind you) in the national edition of the New York Times and say, “Man, him and me, we sure used to have a good time pounding cocktails together.”  For those of you interested in the details of record, click here: 

 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/us/08leeson.html?ref=obituaries

Of course, if you want the real story, there’s a much better one here, since it was written by someone who knew Jim so well:

http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2010/05/06/a-man-in-full-jim-leeson-1930-2010

Now, for the stories.

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Claude Coupee
Lead Correspondent

Yes, many of us were somewhere between puzzled and devastated when we all heard the name “Patrick Robinson” a few nights ago during the first round of the NFL draft.  It wasn’t quite like when that guy came into your office to tell you the Challenger exploded, or OJ was acquitted, but still.

And it may well be, as rumored, that we would love to have taken TCU’s Jerry Hughes, a fine pass-rushing prospect, the one thing this defense lacked last year — a true pass-rush threat off the edge that other teams would have to account for.

But by way of perspective, up in Philadelphia Eagles country, their fans were puzzled when a team that had just traded away arguably its best all-around veteran cornerback for a couple of mid-round picks and some magic beans took a bunch of young pass rushers (three in the first six picks) but no corners worth discussing.   Their largely successful coach was heard to say that a great pass rush makes up for all that corner stuff pretty well, you know.

And I like Andy Reid, but I just got to thinking…..O RLY?  Is that true?  Or is this one of those “offense sells tickets, defense wins ballgames” or “baseball is 90% pitching” or “they don’t play defense in the NBA like they do in college” loads of bullshit that people have just repeated for years without thinking?

You know us.  We had to find out.

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The Goat
GSEZ Founder

Assuming that everyone has recovered from Claude’s John Nash impersonation from earlier this week, we thought you might like to share some of our original thoughts about the draft.

They’re not all OUR original thoughts, mind you, but most of them in fact are, and of course we’ll credit those from whom we stol–, umm, by whom we were inspired.

And the one thought the rules them all is that the eight most important Saints after Drew Brees, in no particular order, are MLB Jonathan Vilma, CB Jabari Greer, CB Tracy Porter and whoever are the five OL standing between Brees and the other team’s defense.

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First, let’s address the situation involving LT Jammal Brown.   After a much younger backup (Jermon Bushrod) replaced the injured Brown for an entire championship season, there’s more than a ton of smoke over the idea that Brown may/must be traded, given the demographics of age (Brown’s already 29), his ability to command a much bigger salary, the fact that we already have yet another quality backup in Zach Streif, and everyone’s desire to play rotisserie football.

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Claude Coupee
Lead Correspondent

Like any good Saints fan, I have spent the wonderful weeks since the Super Bowl doing what I was supposed to:  periodically checking popular websites like ESPN and www.nfl.com to make sure nobody had changed the score of the game.

To make sure that Steve Bartkowski hadn’t snuck in to throw one last pass, or Mike Lansford hadn’t maybe kicked an extra field goal, or Jerry Rice hadn’t scored a touchdown at our five-yard line, or Eric Allen hadn’t stopped by to take just one more back to the house, or Mike Ditka hadn’t come around to help us redo the 2006 draft.

No, not this time. 

-o-o-o-o-o-

So then the thought comes, they can’t really take it away from us, but can they steal the dignity?  The fun?  The perfection of joie?   Can they somehow minimize the triumph, put an asterisk on it, like Ford Frick did or Tex Schramm (f*** that guy) wanted to?

Sort of like the devil in Milton’s Paradise Lost, maybe you can’t kill God, but nobody says you can’t try to poison his dog?

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Claude Coupee
Lead Correspondent

The thing that you can feel right now….is the sense of redemption, for anyone who has ever been a Saint, coached the Saints, followed the Saints….worn the bags on their heads.  It is gone, it is all gone, as of this moment.

–Tom Jackson
ESPN
February 7, 2010

So it’s nigh on a month, and we’re still feeling mighty high.  

High like “we started 13-0″ high.  I know that the post-season and free agency are already upon us, but I’m not leaving 2009 without a final turn through the joy.  So let’s have some more fun with the numbers.

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Sorry this has taken so long.  To be blunt, I am still just processing everything we all went through for the last week or so, and the month before that, and the season and training camp before that, and the 43 years before that.

At least, I guess you all saw the game, yes?  I can thus spare you most of the now-dissected-and-rehashed technical details, although I am sure Claude will have some numbers for you later.  Instead, The Goat will provide

Impressionist Notes From Miami

As I mentioned last week, The Goat was In That Number in Miami.

Secret Agent Man.  Without getting into a lot of detail, accept for a minute that about 30 minutes before Super Bowl kickoff, I was being taken to my stadium gate in a golf cart.  (No arrest involved.)  Driver was one of those official cap-and-windbreaker security guys, doesn’t say a word.  Right before I got out, stone truth, he looked at me solemnly and said, “They told us not to say anything.  But we’re all pulling for you guys.”

It was that kind of night.  In reality, the Colts had no chance from the moment they walked off the plane.

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