If You Scared Say You Scared

Those of you who really know me, know that I am a die hard “Who Dat,” and many of my friends share the same sentiment. So one can only imagine how I feel about the recent bounty scandal within the New Orleans Saints organization and their defensive scheme particularly during their Super Bowl run of the 2009-10 season. However I don’t see what the big fuss is about in regards to the bounty allegations and really have grown a strong dislike for the NFL Players Association and Roger Goddell. Maybe I feel the way that I do because I haven’t played the game of contact football in quite some time and the last I played was nowhere near the level of professional football. I think all the controversy and the media coverage of this is unwarranted.

Lets take a look back at the beginning of football and the humble beginnings of the National Football League. When the game was first played these men wore very little padding and even had leather helmets to protect their head. LEATHER! In fact, in the 1940’s and 50’s using a clothesline to tackle a ball carrier was a very popular method that got the job done and nobody complained because it was all a part of the game. In fact the early NFL was entirely dependent upon the running game because there was no such thing as pass interference. Those who play or used to play receiver probably couldn’t even imagine having to literally fight a defender off of them and then still catch the ball. The early pioneers of the NFL are probably rolling over in their graves when they see how soft the game is getting.

So we moved on from leather helmets and crude padding to lightweight padding that allows for better movement while still offering protection against the violent game that is American football and plastic polymer helmets with protective guards on that protect the player’s face. But what do the players do, half the time they don’t even wear pads. Seriously, next season, or while in the off-season watching NFL Network, look and see how many players at skill positions wear pads. With the exception of their shoulder pads, many of these players have no protection from the waist down. When I watch a game I am surprised at how many players don’t even wear mouthpeices. I thought the reason why NFL players make such astronomical amounts of money is because of the fact that they put their bodies on the line and after they retire they really aren’t good for much that would be physically strenuous. Spare me the rhetoric about football being a billion dollar industry and players deserving their “fair share,” because that goes against the capitalistic system this country was founded upon. Those in control make all of the money and the work horses, for lack of a better term, get the table scraps. Look at college football, none of those players get paid (legally), outside of their tuition and room and board, while the universities make MILLIONS off of their sacrifice of their body. I’ll ask you this simple question, look at President Obama’s yearly salary of $250,000, now how many people who play a GAME, make more money that him, the most powerful man in the United States???

This is not a defense of the pay for big hits/injury because it’s the Saints who are called into question, I’ve long said the game is getting soft. As dangerous as helmet-to-helmet hits are, keep in mind they are only illegal at the highest level of football. If someone with my 5’5” frame were attempting to tackle a 6’2” 225lb ball carrier, would/should he go up top or attempt to take their legs out? Don’t worry I’ll wait. But in addition to that, chew on this, should he just stop and try to wrap the man up, or should he launch his whole body at the man in an attempt to put simple laws of physics on his side and maybe slow the man down if not stop him? But at the highest level this too is considered an illegal hit. How can football as it is taught at the lowest level, supplemented at the high school level, and perfected at the collegiate level become illegal when it reaches the pinnacle of the competitive spirit that it is based upon? Children are taught to drop their shoulder and put the entire weight of their body into the chest of the ball carrier, wrap him up, and bring him to the ground. It is at this same level that children are taught that if they are scared to get hit, that they shouldn’t play the game, because it’s not the right place for that sort of mentality.

Maybe James Harrison had it right all along, Roger Goddell wants defenders to lightly caress the hand of a ball carrier, coax them into a state of relaxation, and then gently lay them down on a feather filled pillow in order to make a tackle. That’s not football!!! This is the same NFL that has given us the dumb ass “tuck rule,” which I still don’t understand, and still think that hit on Tom Brady was a fumble sending my Raiders to the Super Bowl. The same NFL that has amended the overtime rules because Brett Favre had his renewed shot at greatness swept away from him by the Saints, and the same NFL where you can’t touch a quarterback above the shoulders, and can’t hit him below the waist.

All this talk is bogus because incentives for big hits are part of the game of football. When I played, I didn’t assume that the players on the other side of the field wanted to hurt me, I KNEW they did, and frankly I felt the same way, I was going to take them out before they got the chance to do the same to me. Big hits get helmet stickers at the high school and collegiate levels, and if they cause injury, you say a prayer that the person gets better, and you move along because THAT IS A PART OF THE GAME. Goddell won’t rest until the NFL becomes flag football or two-hand touch because they’re so concerned with the player’s safety. Hell, I’d play in the NFL with a pay for big hits policy, legal helmet-to-helmet hits, and even legal clotheslines. Why? Because the league minimum is a hell of a lot more than I’ve made from any other job I’ve had thus far. I think a bounty program is more of an incentive to go out there and give it your all on the field. And more importantly, IF YOU’RE SCARED OF GETTING HURT, THEN YOUR PANSY ASS SHOULDN’T BE PLAYING FOOTBALL!!! Go get a 9-5 like the rest of us and learn how hard life really is. You are well compensated for the dangers of your profession, now quit your bitching and TAKE IT!

Black and Gold Super Bowl...A Reflection...

43 years ago, the National Football Team blessed the world with the Super Bowl and the New Orleans Saints. One has never been a let down, while the other started 5-1 in the preseason and ran the opening kick back 94-yards to the excitement of the fans at Tulane Stadium. Although the Saints would go on to lose that and the six games that followed, they would post an expansion best 3-11 season, leaving the city of New Orleans with a glimmer of hope about their newest beau. And after that promising start, the relationship between this city and its football team would be one of love and hate, probably moreso hate, the love was probably just loyalty.

My love affair with the Saints started in 1983, at a time where the “S” had fallen off and brown-paper bags were the latest in stylish headgear in New Orleans. But I was drawn to this team. Probably because it was only a 20-minute drive to see them play, and my family, except my dad, loved them, but the Saints were MY team. I wasn’t privy to the ‘Aints, I just kept on rooting for them and those better days that were sure to come. I saw glimpses of greatness with the “Cajun Cannon” and “The Dome Patrol,” I cheered when “Bless You Boys” came on, and still believed that the Saints would “Go All the Way” when I “Cha-Chinged” my way to Rally’s. But I never gave up hope.

The Saints have become so important to me that I have a Fleur-de-Lis tattooed on my calf as a symbol of New Orleans, and still remember sneaking away from my go-kart post to the party room upstairs at Celebration Station to catch the first ever playoff victory against the Rams. I couldn’t tell you how many people I “high-fived” and hugged after Az Hakim muffed that punt, but I do remember exactly where I was. Likewise I remember watching the return to New Orleans on Monday night in 2006 instead of briefing cases and how that year almost caused me to fail out of law school because the team did so well and I had to be at Woodrow’s EVERY Sunday.
And I remember last Sunday just the same, I remember how nervous I was throughout the game and how at the end of the fourth quarter and during overtime I was shaking. I’ve experienced the let downs that true Saints fans have for the past 26 years, but I still continue to pull for the home team. Then came the kick…



Surprisingly, as nervous as I was, I couldn’t take my eyes off the TV, expecting the worse but hoping for the best. Hell, this is the same guy who missed a 37-yard field goal against the Bucs with no pressure, so with the Super Bowl on the line and a 40-yard kick coming up, I knew it wasn’t a guarantee. All I could do is look up at the ceiling and speak very softly “God, u know we need this. Not the fans, not the team, but the whole city of New Orleans.” And as the kick split the uprights perfectly the tears began to fall. It’s now Wednesday after the game and I still don’t have the words to express my emotions. It was all so surreal, so dream-like, so…so…PERFECT! All I could think about was calling my dad, the #1 Saints hater and say “now what!” To call my 82 year-old Grandmother to hear the joy in her voice after waiting 43 years for this moment was just crazy. The text messages, the Facebook messages, the shots of Bourbon Street, Jim Henderson’s call; “Pigs have flown! Hell has frozen over! The Saints are going to the Super Bowl!”



For everyone who has stuck with the Saints all their lives like myself, this victory was more than just a game. For everyone who loves New Orleans and wants to see the city move to be better than we were before the storm, this was more than just a game. The naysayers contend that the Vikings gave us the game but we forced 5 turnovers, they say that we intentionally hit Favre and played dirty. Well guess what, we won and the “Brady rule” is BULLSHIT! Not to take nothing away from the Vikings, because that was still one of the greatest games ever played, period.

Thanks for the early birthday present, Saints! The only thing now is to make my dream of Drew Brees riding on a Bacchus float with the Lombardi trophy in tow come true! So where’s the party at on February 7th, New Orleans, or Miami?

WHO DAT?!