Saintman2884

We all like to deride John Mecom as a failed owner of the Saints and for the most part he was a failed owner who really had no clue what he was doing. But retrospectfully speaking maybe Mecom was a product of both inexperience and maybe bad timing in terms of building a team from the ground up.

way back in the 1960's the NFL wasnt what it is now. Their werent million dollar players and jet setting press covering them on ESPN. Mecom inherited a fortune from his father and did a good job of getting the Superdome built and reality into our minds. He just ddint know the screw ball antics of the NFL that existed for so long up until the 1980's. Their was a perception that among the NFL's teams, the Saints were pushovers,you could take advantage fairly easily and screw them in the Draft. We didnt have that Tex shramm type that could be an ******* for our team and make us better by expoliting the talent pool like he did in Dallas.

Mecom was unprepared and ill-equipped. he didnt know the politics of the NFL and despite being an oil millionare, you need somoene who knows football and knows how to play the game like a piano.

and for that we as fans suffered. We knew we were going to be bad year after year, 20 years in fact, it was like being lost in the desert and not knowing how to get out of the heat. Maybe it makes us the NFL version of the chicago Cubs, who I like, but maybe that too is an exagerration or a stretch.

But after Mecom left the scene we saw that the Saints got better, Jim Finks made us look like gold when maybe we were dirt silver on the street. and guess what? it changed our perception of who we are and what are past is and how it should be remembered.


Bottom line, I dont think John Mecom ever stopped trying to make us winners, he just didnt know how to in the first place. he relied on suggestions for the sake of relying on suggestions and it hurt him. Maybe the wierd world of cuthroat NFL politics hurt too, becasue it is a mean business in the deep underbelly. You have to be a pompous jerk and an ******* to be that great FO type like Randy Mueller was and yes even Mickey Loomis now for us.

Loomis has his faults like anybody else, but he is a first class hustler in the NFL, you know not to mess with him, he fights for this team and cant be bullied into doing something rash.

Thats something you need to be in the NFL Business world

blacksaint

1966
Nov. 1 - National Football League awarded 16th franchise to New Orleans as NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle made the announcement at New Orleans' Ponchartrain Hotel ... the New Orleans States-Item headline that afternoon was "N.O. Goes Pro!"; Dec. 15 - John W. Mecom, Jr. becomes majority stockholder-president of franchise; Dec. 22 - Victor E. Schwenk appointed director of player personnel; Dec. 27 - Tom Fears named franchise's 1st head coach.

"One good thing I can say to Mecom. THANKYOU, Mr. Mecom for making the New Orleans Saints a reality. Who would have thought 40 years later, with all the turmoil and franchise relocation's that the Saints are still in little bitty ole New Orleans, unbelievable. Maybe this guy Schwenk should shoulder some of the blame for those horrible years, I mean he was the Director of Player Personnel."

saint4life
(504)

hagan714

You are only as good as the people you surround yourself with.