Halo

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/sports/9946361.htm

If Saints' owner has any guts, he pursues LSU's Nick Saban

By JIM MASHEK

The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.)


NEW ORLEANS - Jim Haslett is as good as gone.

Sure, the New Orleans Saints' brass will deny it, but we shouldn't kid ourselves.

It's Haslett's job to get this team ready to play, and the Saints have the look of a deer in the headlights - with a 30.6 firing away from a tree stand to be named later.

The Saints stumbled around the field in Sunday night's 38-31 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, falling to 2-4 with an impending road trip to the Black Hole.

The Oakland Raiders are no bargain, either, but they'll be favored against the sad-sack Saints, who play with all the vigor of a condemned man being served his last meal.

Seconds, anyone?

Micky Loomis, the Saints' general manager, made a not-so-veiled threat in an interview with The Times-Picayune after the Saints lost back-to-back games to previously winless NFL squads. He insisted he¹d be ready to wield an indiscriminate ax if things don¹t change soon.

This just in:

Things aren't changing any time soon.

If anything, they're getting worse.

The Saints are losing, and they are losing in spectacular fashion.

Vintage Saints, if you will.

The Minnesota Vikings had 24 hours to kill in the Big Easy before they strolled onto the carpet of the Louisiana Superdome on Sunday night. Then they needed three hours and change to thrash the Saints all over the place.

Haslett cast his lot with Saints quarterback Aaron Brooks after the club¹s breakthrough season in 2000, a logical move at the time but one that becomes more unpopular every year.

Saints owner Tom Benson made the dumbest move of all, however, when he fired general manager Randy Mueller in a bizarre, rambling press conference just 29 months ago. He couldn¹t understand why Mueller had to be on the road, and he told anyone who would listen that he had problems with his "management style."

Mussolini, no doubt, could relate.

Benson even insisted he could serve as the club¹s general manager, before settling on Loomis four days later.

Still, somebody has to pay for this unmitigated disaster, and the guess here is that somebody has to be Jim Haslett.

Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper toyed with the Saints¹ secondary on Sunday night, while Brooks struggled with his timing until the Saints had fallen behind by a couple touchdowns.

Culpepper roamed behind flawless protection to fire a 9-yard touchdown pass to Jermaine Wiggins with 10:48 left in the third quarter, his fourth scoring throw of the night.

Saints fans, meanwhile, were ready to bag it shortly thereafter, and there¹s little doubt we could see some paper-bag heads in the stands when the Saints return to the Dome for a Nov. 14 game with the Kansas City Chiefs.

All of which leads, of course, to what Tom Benson does next, as the Saints implode yet one more time.

Does Haslett stay, and Loomis go?

Does Loomis clean house?

Does Haslett run for the U.S. Senate, and put all of this behind him?

Does Mueller pick up Benson¹s laundry and wash his car on his way back to the general manager¹s office? That way, you see, Benson would know what he was up to, which seems to have been one of the hang-ups all along.

If Benson's got half a brain - a sweeping assumption, to be sure - he opens his vault and goes after the obvious candidate:

LSU's Nick Saban.