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Scott Shanle's positive memories with New Orleans Saints will outweigh 'difficult' 2012 season

Scott Shanle's honesty and insight have always made him stand out inside the New Orleans Saints' locker room. And that was certainly no different on Wednesday, when the 10-year veteran linebacker opened up about the possibility that this could be his final week with the team.

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Unlike fellow veterans with uncertain futures such as Will Smith, Jonathan Vilma and Devery Henderson -- all of whom insisted they haven't thought about their futures beyond this season yet -- Shanle can already see the writing on the wall. He's been inactive for eight of the last nine games, despite being fully healthy.

After six and a half seasons as a full-time starter with the Saints, 101 starts including the playoffs, Shanle has been phased out.

"Even though I knew it was happening and accepted that it was happening, it was hard to accept," admitted Shanle, who became a backup when the Saints got veterans David Hawthorne and Vilma back from injuries this year.

And since Shanle isn't a standout special teams player, he has been in street clothes on game days.

"It's been very difficult. I haven't experienced this at any other point in my career," Shanle admitted. "But even more frustrating than that is just how it's gone for us as a team this year as well. I think it would be one thing to not be on the field playing and having us be 13-3 and getting ready for the playoffs. I think it would be easier to go through.

"It's even harder when you're not playing and there's still some struggles and you feel like you could help out in certain things.

But, Shanle added later, "I've had so many good experiences here that even if it does end like this, I have no animosity."

Shanle, 33, said he would still like to play in the NFL next year. He said he feels great physically, especially after such little wear and tear this year, and feels just as fresh mentally.

"I don't feel like I've played 10 years. The game doesn't exhaust me. The routine doesn't exhaust me," said Shanle, though he suggested that he will be picky about where he plays and the coaches and players he's around.

"I'm ready to move forward whatever comes my way," Shanle said. "If it's going somewhere else, if it's coming back, if its doing something entirely different in my life, I'll be ready for it. And I'm just thankful that I've been able to do it for 10 years."

Shanle has never been a dynamic star for the Saints, but he's always been a solid, dependable player who earned the trust of coaches and teammates. He was instantly plugged into the starting lineup at weakside linebacker after a late-summer trade with the Dallas Cowboys in 2006. And he re-signed with the team twice as a free agent, never relinquishing the job to a younger challenger.

The Saints have Shanle credited with 673 tackles in those seven seasons, with 7.5 sacks, three interceptions, five forced fumbles and four fumble recoveries.

And, of course, one Super Bowl ring.

Saints linebacker Scott Shanle celebrates as a fourth down play fails to convert in the final minutes during Super Bowl XLIV in Fort Lauderdale, FL between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts February 7, 2010.
Michael DeMocker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

When asked what memories he'll take with him if he leaves New Orleans after this season, Shanle instantly mentioned the Super Bowl. But he said that's far from the only one.

"I think as a whole when I look back at coming here in 2006, where the organization had been and everything that we've accomplished the past six, seven years, it's been truly amazing," Shanle said. "And the re-opening of the Dome (after Hurricane Katrina in 2006). My fifth in year in the league, I had no idea of the magnitude of that game, of what it meant. And now that I've been here and I've seen how this city lives and dies Saints football, I understand a heck of a lot more how that game meant what it did back then. And people being displaced for a year, and the energy they brought to that game ...

"You know, just, I'm thankful for the city. What they've meant to my family on a personal level. When I first moved here I had one son. And we've had two other children here. And forever we'll have that bond, not just because I played football here but because I had kids born in the city as well."

Shanle is tied for fourth among the Saints with the longest tenure on the current roster. He arrived in 2006 along with quarterback Drew Brees and draft picks Roman Harper, Jahri Evans, Zach Strief and Marques Colston.

The only three Saints who have been here longer are 2004 draft picks Smith and Henderson and 2005 free agent pickup Lance Moore.

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