Rookie Observation
 

Although I have been a Saints follower since the beginning I have not taken to participating in any forums other than office talk. However, as my office partner is so much more of an ardent, diehard fan than I the compulsion to participate in this forum has overcome me. The first year it seems Jim HazHadit for the most part fielded a team that he inherited from Mike Didit and put good numbers. The second and third year the inhereited players went to greater things and more HazHadit players donned the black and gold, but the seasons crumbled on them. Now we find ourselves with a total (except Fontenot) HazHadit team and we find ourselves with what we have. This not to withstand the fact we have many that could be poster children for handicap parking. I think due to poor conditioning and offseason development in part -- attributable to HazHadit and his band of incompetents disguised as coaches. I really feel that HazHadit began his road to demise when he completely wronged Jeff Blake. Under normal circumstances, which we are not dealing with in this situation, when a #1 player goes out with an injury upon his return it is his to lose. However, called whatever you want BillyC, Blake was never given a chance. Of course, like Delhomme, has gone on to better things and places. As long as the diehards live-on and pack the Superdome and the coffers of Tom Benson he will continue to be happy with the 15 percentile. He is like what we used to call in school a tease. He brings someone in that wins just enough to excite us but not enough that he has to come off his big fat pocketbook to take us to the promiseland. Actually there is another smiling besides AB, who was described as looking drunk on the field -- Tom Benson because of record ticket sales and below average wages in comparison to other teams. Point all of the fingers in whatever direction you will, the real deal is that it is us the faithful followers that cannot seem to walk away from a bad deal, get excited over 1 win, buy record numbers of tickets when we know, but continue to deny, it will never change, not until you hurt Benson in his big fat pocketbook. He continues to try and hold the state of Louisiana hostage with hints of moving. Truth be known he can't afford to move without taking a loss -- because other fans would never put up with what we have put up with out of him and John Meacom. Again just an observation from a long time follower of the Saints and rookie to the forum world.

Rookie Observation
 

Here, here. My compliments to a great post.

Rookie Observation
 

Well well...looks like the original swamp found himself a playmate.

:P

[Edited on 3/10/2003 by JOESAM2002]

Rookie Observation
 

Touche, you came up with that all yourself or did the nurse help you?

Rookie Observation
 

Welcome DblBogey, and by the way nice post.

But.....if you believe that.....why are you a Saints fan? You have nothing to gain from being one, so I question why you are?

On any professional sports organization, you have a collective group of players and coaches that I can guarantee you are spirtually dedicated to being winners. Whether they are physically or mentally capable is debatable, but I don\'t think anyone could say they believe any one player or coach in this league is here because they\'ve come in with the intention of being a loser.
While I think it\'s fair to question ownerships intentions with a team and the balance of financial gain to franchise success, I would not question individual intention. No player or coach cares how much money the team makes. They care solely about winning and how much money they make personally. And they know that winning will mean they make more money.
There are so many small market franchises in sports that perenially get by with greater financial and ownership related obstacles and achieve worse results and better results. Teams like the Twins in baseball and the Wild in hockey, have some of the lowest payrolls, least individual talent levels and seem to be successful. The NFL allows the least obstacles for teams of any of the other major sports, and it creates the greatest parity than any other league. It is the goal of every owner to want the most results from the least financial risk. I can also guarantee that Benson would want the team to succeed any year. He, like the owners of the Twins and Wild, want to win and be know they can do it without having the highest payroll, having a top market, having the marquee players or coaches. Benson wants to win. He\'s not satidfied with what he has achieved so far in my mind. He just wants the success without any further risks on his part. He wants his cake and he wants to eat it too. Being a fan, I don\'t relish in this thought, but I still believe that teams don\'t have to buy the championship. It can be won through hard work and dedication. Randy Mueller, I think, knew how to get us there, but not within the constraints that Benson wanted him to operate in. Benson wants a group that can win it, but on his terms.

Rookie Observation
 

I think that if Benson doesn\'t fire Haz like he did Mueller if we go 1-7, he is a farce and a money grubber. PERIOD

Rookie Observation
 

Wow.

One post and already an attack on BillyC. *sigh* I guess Brooks elicits passionate feelings in most people. In some people it shows up as a \"defend him to the end\" attitude. In others, their distaste for him just bleeds all over everyone who says anything good about him.

Anyway, welcome DB! The Saints need all the help they can get, even if that help is critical of their organization.

Rookie Observation
 

I don\'t think it is going to take a 1-7 start for most of us to believe that Benson is a \"farce\" and a \"money-grubber\" because I, for one, already feel that way. Unfortunately there\'s more to it than that.

Benson has already shown that he\'ll allow non-football conflicts to hamper the development of the team when he fired Mueller. However, that wasn\'t as damaging as what he did next. Promoting Loomis to GM was a woeful move on many levels.

I say this not because Loomis is not a good fit for the position he has been given, but because what a team needs is a strong leader with a clear plan for the future. Many of you will remember back in the mid 90\'s after Jim Finks passed away that Benson didn\'t have the guts to go get a real GM. Instead, he promoted Kuhurich to GM, allowed Mora to have more power on personel decisions, and let capologist O\'Neil run the money side. He has basically arranged things the same way now and handicapped the management of the team. We already know the results from that earlier disaster and now we have to worry that he\'ll wake up before it\'s too late to recover from the latest.

All of the off-season moves this past year have looked good, but now they\'re showing just how bad they were. Time will only tell, but I\'d wager that the 2003 draft class will turn out to be a major bust as compared to the previous three years under Mueller.

I imagine I could go on for days about this, but I\'ll end it here. Benson is the root of all the Saints\' problems and successes and, until he makes a change to the current organizational make-up, the team is going to suffer.

Rookie Observation
 

I am with you dbl on the first part but you lose me on the second observation.

You said, \"because of record ticket sales and below average wages in comparison to other teams\". Where are the below average wages? He paid the coach what was demanded when EVERYONE was stomping their feet for a contract extension. Now that is biting benson and the fans in the butt, but who knew that was coming.

The unprecedented manner Randy Meuller was fired and the fact he has not been hired by another team tells me there is reason to believe Benson was in the right to can him. There have been plenty people who have great minds or great skills but also great character flaws that make them not worth keeping around.

Rookie Observation
 

ScottyRo, Hindsight is always 20/20.

Quote, \"Many of you will remember back in the mid 90\'s after Jim Finks passed away that Benson didn\'t have the guts to go get a real GM. Instead, he promoted Kuhurich to GM\"

The other side to this is that Kuhurich worked under Finks for several years. Many in the league were touting him as the next great GM of the future. Finks was good at his job and I would be willing to bet he put in a good word for Benson to promote Kuhurch.

One thing you can count on if you are a young aspiring executive in the saints organization is you will be given the chance to be promoted from within, how can you fault that? Except for a handful of coaches and GM tandems in the league much of it is a crap shoot until you find one that works. There have been many more failures across the board then there have been successes and that will never change.

Just my opinion.