An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

It's very unfortunate, and screams volumes of discontent among the followers of professional and collegiate sports in general. Is it a franchise specific thought process or is it phenomena that has been instilled into the broader opinions of America today?

I personally don’t see why Haz wasn’t relieved of his duties last year, after his 2nd December swoon. Yet, he was allowed to return as head coach of the Saints after submitting lie after lie during the off-season of his ill-advised improvements.

Meanwhile, speaking purely from experience….

We; the Bucs were (so driven to be successful), released one of the greatest coaches in the game, because he was not able to get over that proverbial hump of winning in the post-season. The POST-SEASON folks…..

5 consecutive years of fielding a team worthy of a shot at the Super Bowl wasn’t even enough…..

Looking back, it was a successful move, but that doesn’t make it the right move, in respects to how you treat people.

Dungy groomed the Bucs for success; yet IMO his works have fallen upon deaf ears with a resounding SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP thump. I am appreciative of Gruden and I’m glad he’s apart of our organization, but if you listened to his early interviews as the team was taking its championship form; he acknowledged the great legacy Dungy had left behind. In a sense he was laughing to himself. For the first time in his coaching career all he had to do was focus on OFFENSE 200%....

It was a no brainer!

Meanwhile….

Your Saints struggle with Haz… Haz; in every sense of the word, is a Haz-been. Still, many of you cling to the hopes and gratitude of his past accomplishments. Don’t toss injuries up as defense of his failures, every team encounters them and we all play through them.

In a sense you are getting exactly what you deserve. How many times must a bully take your lunch money? How many times must he promise to pick-up the kids? How many times must he promise to mow the lawn? How many times must your hopes become shattered each week before you see the obvious? How many “We played well up to….� are you going to tolerate? The Saints need to raise the bar of expectations throughout the entire organization…. But not through words; instead, through results.

Of course no coach can throw a pass, run the ball or line up to block someone. But it has been proven that players take on the personality and traits of their coaches. Think back for a minute about winning teams and the coaches that led them….. Then it becomes clear why the Saints are a group of underachieving men. Whenever you have talent oozing out of the ears as the Saints do, but then you level the playing field with inconsistency and poor execution, there is only ONE MAN RESPONSIBLE FOR CORRECTING THESE PROBLEMS……

Week after week it’s a different take: Brooks this…. The defense that… Venutri should… I’m not saying that a certain group or person didn’t play well at any given time. What I am saying is:

Will the real problem please stand up??

But still; your Saints struggle with Haz… Haz; in every sense of the word, is a Haz-been.






[Edited on 1/10/2003 by BucNup]

[Edited on 1/10/2003 by BucNup]

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

BucNup --

I\'ll be the first to admit that I thought the late season collapses were a culmination of a lot of different reasons. I was willing to give Haz the benifit of the doubt because he took a miserable team that he inheirited from Ditka and turned it around. I still think that was the right thing to do. But, after watching these first 4 games it is now clear to me that the root of the problem is Haz himself. It is also clear to me that players don\'t thrive under Haz, but succeed despite Haz.

I really wonder how some of the star players would perform under a coach that actually knows how to put players in a position to succeed !! The great coaches can get underacheivers to raise their game to the next level. Haz can\'t get great players to perform average. It\'s no telling how some of these players could perform and until Haz is gone, I don\'t think we will ever know.

I\'m sure Haz worked hard and did the best he could do, but like everyone that has a normal job, if you can\'t get the job done, there is someone who can. So my question is :Will the next coach of the New Orleans Saints please stand up??



[Edited on 1/10/2003 by BillyCarpenter1]

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

BucNup, that\'s what champions are made of. Being content is what losers do. The Bucs were not satisfied with just making the playoffs and being close to the SB. So, they rectified it. Tom Benson is a loser and has no balls. I agree with you whole heartedly that Haz should have been canned last year. To go 7-2 and lose to the likes of Cincinnati and Carolina, with a playoff shot on the line, is simple unacceptable. Do you know what Benson did after the end of last season? He brought Haz and his coaching staff into his suite and told them what a great coaching job they did! Nope, I\'m not kidding. That\'s shows you the leadership of this franchise. Good luck to you and your great team, we\'re sure to give you two easy W\'s in the near future. Hopefully, we can persuade a motivator and great coach in Saban to think about coming here. Course, with our record, we\'ll probably hire Dave McGinnis after he is canned in Phoenix.

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

You know this is still a Saints board. Why would you want to wish the Bucs luck?? I don\'t think any self respecting Saints fan would do that !!

[Edited on 1/10/2003 by BillyCarpenter1]

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

Ignore them, and they will leave.

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

I hear ya tweeky and I WILL follow that advise!!

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

You\'d think that after 155 posts I\'d be able to make a post without being ignored? I\'m confused? Have it your way though.....

I still won\'t leave.

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

We weren\'t talking about you Buc, or at least I wasn\'t. I was talking about DOG

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

My bad...

But; wishing one luck is ok, until head to head battles I thought?

Well, I take that back. That\'s if all things were equal. I can understand your position...

But then tha would be like me saying: Continued failure.....

I don\'t know. It\'s all so confusing. I do wish your Saints out of this funk, honestly.

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

Not directed at you Buc, you aren\'t an idiot.
I enjoy your posts quite a bit.
I just wish you\'d shrink that stupid ring down some.

Hey JoeSam, don\'t we have some rules about the size of photo\'s used in signatures?

[Edited on 1/10/2003 by tweeky]

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

Buc --

Thanks for wishing us luck, but it\'s kind of an unwritten rule for me not wish anyone in our division any luck. I can understand your position, because it doesn\'t look like we are a threat to the Bucs right now. But for a Saints fan to be wishing a team in our division any luck right now is just unacceptable. What he should be doing is wishing the Saints luck and praying that every other team in the South doesn\'t win another game !!

I\'d just don\'t respect fans like that!!

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

Listen, you two clowns. This Buc\'s fan came on here with the untmost respect. And I respect that. If you two could get your heads out of your asses long enough, you\'d realize that the Bucs are everything we aspire to be. There were once the epitome of losing and now, have made themselves into a model franchise. We should envy them, not despise them. And if you two genius\' think they we have a chinaman\'s chance in hell of beating the Bucs this season, I\'d be more than happy to take your bets.

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

Tweeky, surely you can\'t meean the size of that ring? LOL. It does help if we keep the photos to a smaller size and I would ask all to please try to keep it down sized a bit.

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

Great post Buc. I will disagree with one thing. Haz is not a has-been, he\'s a never was. Meuller did bring in Brooks, Blake, and Horn in his first year. However, much of the rest of Haslett\'s 2000 campaign was done with hold-overs from the Ditka era.

I do find it interesting that Billy has done a complete 180, with the exception of Brooks of course. That\'s OK Billy - next time, just try to listen more than you talk, and take others\' thoughts into consideration even if they stand in contrast to your own. I\'m not talking about me. There were a lot of other people on this board that gave you plenty of reason to question the defense, to question Haslett, etc. Maybe you should listen to even your staunchest opponents. Some of us do know a thing or two about football you know?

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

Antagonistic! enough.

[Edited on 2/10/2003 by JOESAM2002]

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

WhoDat --

Your talkin\' out ya azz boi. Well, Mr. Know It All. I suppose we should bow to to you. You had it all figured out. You knew our offense would stuggle like it has. You knew Michael Lewis would not be the same. You knew that the all the players on defense would get hurt!!

While there was a little more reason to be pesimistic about, there wasn\'t much. Now, we got a few smug members who think they are geniuses !! Did you call Reed in Philly and let him know what was up too?

When someone says everything sucks there\'s always that chance they will be right about something !!

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

I can deal with WhoDat, FWtex, 08, etc. since they were at least calling the defense and Brook\'s leadership into question in the offseason and the preseason. Like myself, I\'m sure they would be glad to be at 4-0 and sporting the number one D and O, but unfortunately that isn\'t the position. The OriginalSwampdog on the other hand flies in here like the second coming of Jesus with his \"I\'m the original Saints fan\" and crystal ball calls prophecizing what just happened yesterday. This guy is intolerable. Where were you 6 months ago? Where were you last year? Earn some credibility first buddy. I didn\'t like Billy when he first came in here because he was brash and arrogantly opinionated, but over time he proved he could intellegently talk some football and defend his beliefs without resorting to idiocy. You haven\'t. You have grabbed a side in an arguement and talked smack. That\'s it. You\'ve brought nothin in here but attitude, and the smack serves to simply reduce your credibility since you\'ve earned none.
No one, in here or in the media, predicted the Saints offense would struggle, or that our special teams would be poor. Many posters had skepticism of how the defense could improve with so many new faces, and expected to see a similar defense as last season as a result. What have you ever said in here that gives you any bragging rights? Why do you even like the Saints? Go be a winner in Tampa if we suck so much.



[Edited on 1/10/2003 by lumm0x]

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

It was Gatorman\'s fault. He was a bad influence on me. ;) Besides, it was the off season and it WAS fun for a while but I came in here too wide open!!

[Edited on 1/10/2003 by BillyCarpenter1]

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

Not only that, but you also walked in right when we were looking for anyone to argue with, about anything. :P

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

Jim Haz back as coach of this team. Benson can have my ticket back. Just like when I worte Tom Benson personally when he thought of retaining Ditka. He responded back with an emphatic begging for me to be patient and that Ditka would not be back. Well, we\'re back to square on and the only way to get Benson\'s attention is to take some weight out of his wallet. He\'s a car salesman for Christ sake! Threaten to walk out of the showroom and watch him come a runnin\' after you! Blackmail folks, works great!

An Open Letter to the Saints....
 

Trust me, by no means have we distanced ourselves from the pack. I\'m just as nervous about the rest of the season as probably many of your are about the hopes of turning your thing around? Last year is over and I haven\'t made reference to it, OTHER THAN MY HUGE OVER SIZED RING PICTURE. That I\'m working on to downsize as we speak... :D

I made those comments, because it is the only thing I can truly think of as a measure of your teams problems. Haz is not focusing on the small problems, and they have bubbled over into larger problems. IMO.....