GumboBC

Are the Saints on their way up, or on their way down? Or maybe stuck somewhere in-between?

Answer: Nobody knows!!!

But, everyone always has his or her “opinion� on the subject.

I’ve been a Saints fan all my life and I have heard it all when it comes to the Saints. Because everyone knows how big of a Saints fan I am, I usually get bombarded this time of year with folks telling me to just give up on the Saints or they tell me how I’m fooling myself to keep thinking the Saints will ever do anything. For me, there is no escaping these people. I once even got a phone call from an ex-girl friend after a Saints loss just so she could rub it in a little bit. Is there no mercy in the world?!?! It seems one man’s pain is another man’s (or woman’s) pleasure.

And when it comes to these folks, just telling me how pitiful the Saints are isn’t good enough. They want to tell me “why� the Saints are so pitiful. Then they want to hear why I expect the Saints to be any different.


Now, I’ll admit, I don’t have too much in the arsenal at my disposal to put up a good argument for the Saints. Up until a few years ago, I couldn’t even say we had won a single playoff game. The best I could do is talk about how other teams had come out of nowhere and gone on to the big dance. I’d tell ‘em about the guys we’d signed in the off-season and how much of an impact I thought they would make.

But, that argument would soon be shot down as nothing more than blind faith. I soon had to realize that “history� was not on my side.

And when I came to the realization that “history� was not on my side, that’s when I decided, right then and there, to become an optimist. I saw no reason to let them get me down. I’d been though everything when it came to the Saints and I saw no reason to give up hope now!

So, I quit trying to make my case for the Saints with “facts� or “history.� It was an impossible argument. - One that I couldn’t possibly win. - Every time they would tell me why the Saints were miserable, I’d say something optimistic- without going into any detail. Well, then it came. I got labeled as an “optimist.� Which at first seemed as bad as them talking trash about the Saints.

Inevitably the subject switched form the Saints to- “Why I was being so optimistic? I thought long and hard before answering. And finally said: Well, an optimist looks at something and hopes for a bright and shining future. But a pessimist has no desire to be hopeful, because they don't expect it to be any different than today. I told 'em I'd rather look at what "can" be. And all pessimists did was point out what :"could" have been


But after telling why I was an optimist, I was told I was being foolish and was told that a pessimist is an optimist with better information and as soon as I figured that out, the better off I'd be.

Well, I gave that thought some consideration and decided that wasn't in my best interest when it comes to the Saints. ;)

So far I haven’t been able to tell these folks that my optimism has paid off. But one day….. One day…..