By John DeShazier, The Times-Picayune
November 04, 2009, 7:19AM
Ted Jackson/The Times-Picayune
New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush didn’t say anything wrong when he said the Saints ‘could’ go undefeated. He should think that way.
Each and every time a New Orleans Saints player mumbles something these days about going undefeated this regular season, it’s headline news. The wisdom of the proclamation is debated and the arrogance-versus-confidence angle comes into play, and a big to-do commences.
And you have to wonder: Just what, exactly, is Reggie Bush, or Pierre Thomas, or Drew Brees, or any other Saint, supposed to say?
That he sees a loss on the horizon? That a future opponent is a better team? That the Saints are playing with house money, on borrowed time, and can’t possibly navigate the regular season without emerging blemished?
The truth is, athletics overflows with bravado, false and justified. Football, probably more than any sport, is built on machismo. The day when a team doesn’t believe it can enforce its will upon an opponent probably is going to be a long day, because the game exponentially is more about the forcing of will rather than the practice of deception.
Think about it: In defeat, players are more likely to blame themselves than to credit the opponent.
Just as Giants and Dolphins players this season wouldn’t just ladle credit all over the Saints in lopsided losses, and offered that they’re own mistakes did as much damage as did New Orleans’ execution, Saints players in past – less successful – seasons haven’t rushed to heap praise on the opposition when they were on the bottom side of some of the punishment the 2009 team is administering.
That’s the way of the athletic world. It’s a universe of they-played-well-but-we-shot-ourselves-in-the-foot reasoning.
So, based on the mantra that a team believes it mostly controls itself, it stands to reason that the Saints this season truly would believe they can win their remaining nine games. If they’d believe it – and probably be willing to say it – with a 4-3 record, why in the world wouldn’t they believe it and say it at 7-0?
I know, I know.
Often, fan preference is subterfuge. Fans, on most days, want their team to creep under the radar, to be the underdog every week, to sneak up on opponents. They want all that on the days when they aren’t complaining that their team isn’t getting enough national respect and certain announcers aren’t lavishing enough praise.
Heck, team executives and coaches aren’t all that bothered about flying under the radar, either. The better to play the no-respect card for all it’s worth.
But no fan – or coach – wants a team full of players who don’t believe they can win every game. No fan or coach wants a team full of players who are afraid to say what they believe, either.
So a Saints player or two has intimated that, yes, he believes New Orleans can win all its regular-season games. There’s no news there. That’s what he’s supposed to say.
The worry should be if he says anything else.
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