4) When Haslett gets his pink slip from Benson, the move to not let quarterback Jake Delhomme play late in the 2002 season will go down as the main reason he isn’t around anymore.

Late in the 2002 season, it was no secret that starting quarterback Aaron Brooks had a bad shoulder that would eventually require surgery to repair, but Haslett just would not, and still does not, admit that Brooks’ play was affected by the shoulder injury.

In Week 13, Delhomme came in for an injured Brooks and completed 7 of 8 passes for 103 yards, and the Saints beat the Baltimore Ravens 37-25. With three games left to play, the Saints just needed one win to get them into the playoffs, but Delhomme never hit the field again after that outing in Baltimore.

The Saints lost each of their next three contests, and even when the team was offensively bogged down in the season finale against the Panthers, Haslett refused to pull the plug on his injured quarterback.

After watching the Saints lose to the Panthers 10-6 and not getting a chance to play, Delhomme made the decision that he would never get a shot to compete for a starting role in New Orleans and signed a contract with Carolina. We all know the rest of the story.

One former Saints offensive player who is still in the league is still upset over Haslett’s decision to not give Delhomme a shot late in the season.

"It was obvious to all of us on the team and even people who were close to Aaron that he was not the same player after the shoulder injury," the former Saint said. "Haslett is stubborn as a coach, and he wanted to prove he was right when just about every player and all the media was saying to play Jake. Jake would have given us the best chance to win late that season.

"I am convinced that Haz just didn’t want to start a quarterback controversy, and he knew that Jake would have won one or maybe two of those three games. He was always very protective of Brooks’ position on the club, and he never wanted to rub him the wrong way because Aaron was sensitive. I say the hell with that. I wanted to get into the playoffs, and I didn’t care who got me there. Haslett talked as though the team choked down the stretch, but he was the one who choked."

I will go to my grave believing that after he talked Benson into giving Brooks that big contract earlier in the year, he didn’t want to have to tell the "Old Man" that he might have made a mistake.

Who knows what would have happened if Mueller had stayed on as general manager and the team had kept Delhomme, Roaf and Glover on the roster? But what I do know is that they were a heck of a lot better with them than not having them here anymore, and the holes they left behind are still unfilled.