Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda Still Means Nothing for Saints
 

Woulda, coulda, shoulda still means nothing for Saints


BY SCOTT RABALAIS
Advocate sportswriter

Give the New Orleans Saints credit for one thing. They did play better Sunday against the Chicago Bears than they did the week before against the Miami Dolphins.


But moral victories and good intentions did nothing to change two disquieting realities about the franchise:

The Saints are in the grip of another losing streak, and the state is worried about losing its grip on the Saints.

On a balmy Sunday afternoon in Tiger Stadium, the public address announcer could have welcomed every fan in attendance by name and finished well before the Bears finished off the Saints 20-17.

In the NFL, they use the nifty little euphemism "tickets distributed" to come up with game attendance. That number on this Sunday was 32,637, the fewest tickets distributed by the Saints in nine years.

It looked smaller than that, but whatever voodoo economics you employ, the un-crowd was swallowed up in the vastness of Tiger Stadium, which saw much more than twice that many fans turn out the night before when LSU hosted Division I-AA foe Appalachian State.

With the Saints attempting to sell only about 79,000 of Tiger Stadium's 92,300 seats for their four home games here, at least 47,000 or so didn't bother to show up or buy a ticket Sunday. The no-shows included embattled Saints owner Tom Benson, who fled Tiger Stadium last Sunday "fearing for his safety" if not fearing for his nose to grow.

Some of the media covering the game from San Antonio, which is unabashedly trying to loot the Saints, could be overheard snickering about the sparse crowd. Benson has taken out ads professing his desire to keep the team in New Orleans. But his actions -- including firing team vice-president Arnold Fielkow, a proponent of keeping the team in New Orleans long-term and playing all the Saints' home games in Baton Rouge this season -- paint a different picture.


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RE: Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda Still Means Nothing for Saints
 

Yeah, Death Valley was -empty. You could see crickets in the stands. And when the camera would flash to the fans that actually did bother to go, well, they just looked bored and disheartened. There was zero fun going on in the stands.

RE: Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda Still Means Nothing for Saints
 

yeah i actually found myslef rooting against the saints yesterday becase i had the bears d in my fantasy league. **** why lose my fantasy game to watch the saintys win a game when we aren't going anywhere this year. i hope we lose out or go 3-13. this way we get a good draft pcik and the haz gets a moving out of town

Agreed, losing out the rest of the season probably would be best for the team at this point. Still, though, even when Haslett gets whacked, the problems will remain because the front office remains.

IMO, the real problem starts at Mr. Benson's desk. He'll continue to fire people for making good football decisions, and to promote people that can say "yes Mr. Benson".

Because of this, changing head coaches won't make much difference. That's how I see it.