Loyola University New Orleans is asking a very simple question to all Saints fans across the Gulf South: “Are you ready for some football???”

To start off the Saints season in fanatical style, the Center for the Study of New Orleans will host, “Fleur Delirious: A Look at the Saints’ Relationship with New Orleans,” on Tuesday, Sept. 7, at 7 p.m., in Roussel Hall. The event will feature a panel discussion on the Saints, their magical season, and what the team means to the culture of New Orleans.

“The Saints’ fabulous Super Bowl season showed just how intimate the relationship is between the Saints and the city of New Orleans,” said center Director Leslie Parr, Ph.D. “Our program will explore the highs and lows of this relationship and give the audience a chance to ask our distinguished panel everything they’ve always wanted to know about their team.”

Panelists will include former Saint and fan favorite Michael “Beerman” Lewis, Times-Picayune sports reporter and author Jeff Duncan, and WWL-TV sports director and voice of the Saints, Jim Henderson.

Duncan’s new book, “From Bags to Riches: How a Struggling Franchise and a Storm-Battered City Became Champions,” chronicles the unique bond between team and fan, as well as the importance of that relationship in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“A lot of my colleagues throughout the country think that the Saints/New Orleans/Katrina story is one of the greatest, not just of the NFL, but in all of sports,” Duncan said. “But, as good as the story looks on the surface, it goes much deeper.”

“National media thinks that the Saints saved the city, but in reality it’s the other way around,” Duncan continued. “The real heroes aren’t Drew Brees, Sean Payton or Reggie Bush, it’s the fans. They had no reason to support a 3-13 team and owner that was looking to get out, but they did. They told the NFL, ‘You’re not moving this team to San Antonio or L.A. It’s ours.’ They bought season tickets with FEMA checks. They sacrificed basic living expenses to keep this team here. The storm galvanized that bond between franchise and fan, and finally – after 43 years – both received the ultimate reward.”

Mike Triplett, The Times-Picayune

New Orleans Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma was in Philadelphia on Monday for a second opinion on his groin injury, but the Saints are confident that he’ll be right back where he’s supposed to be — in the middle of their defense — come Sept. 9 when they play the Minnesota Vikings in the regular-season opener at the Superdome.

“Certainly, he’ll be out this week,” Coach Sean Payton said of New Orleans’ preseason finale at Tennessee on Thursday night. “But I think we’re optimistic that he’s going to be able to start up practice when we get going Sunday (for) next week. But we’re going to have to spend a lot of time here in the next six, seven days with treatment and all the things necessary.”

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By Pat Yasinskas

We’re going to resume our series of NFC South position rankings with the defensive ends.

This is not exactly a position of strength entering the season, but I think that could change as time goes on. There are a lot of young defensive ends around the division and some of them are bound to rise up as the season goes on. For the moment, though, there aren’t a lot of sure things.

Once again, I’m basing my rankings on talks with coaches, scouts, front-office folks and players. Here we go.
Can you guess who # 1 is ??? Well click here now to find out.

I will not spoil it with any comments.

James Varney

New Orleans Saints quarterback Chase Daniel and receiver Adrian Arrington have been a dynamic duo during the preseason, hooking up for big plays and making strong cases for spots on the team’s 53-man roster.

Oddly enough, though, they’ve actually been competing against each other the whole time.

A third quarterback and a sixth receiver might be considered “luxuries” for the Saints when they make their final roster cuts at the end of this week, especially since neither Daniel nor Arrington contribute on special teams.

So as well as they’ve played this summer, they’re both wobbling on the proverbial bubble, along with players like tight end Tory Humphrey, fullback Zak Keasey, defensive ends Junior Galette and Bobby McCray and defensive backs Leigh Torrence and Chip Vaughn, among several others.

The Saints need to cut two players by Tuesday, then another 22 by Saturday

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Love the new directTV commercials for Sunday Ticket for NFL. The Saints one is awesome.

Looks like another un-drafted free agent is going to make the team. This is a major credit to scouting department for Saints.

Here is a video clip of a previous gold strike by the draft team ( Pierre Thomas) talking about Ivory.

What a run after catch!!

Pat Yasinskas

The New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers are turning things over to the backups as we approach the end of the third quarter of Friday night’s preseason game in New Orleans. I’ll keep an eye on what happens the rest of the way, but since the important part’s over, I wanted to get my observations up here as quickly as possible.

Read his observations here.

Jeff Duncan

We all know life in post-Katrina New Orleans is an oft-maddening good-news, bad-news existence.

One day, optimism abounds. The next you wonder whether the city will ever turn the corner.

The same can be said for preseason football.

For every positive sign, there’s a contrasting negative one.

In the middle of it all, it’s difficult to really tell what you have or where you’re going.

After Friday night’s 36-21 victory against San Diego, the good news for the New Orleans Saints is the positive definitely outweighs the negative.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the Saints’ good and bad, 13 days before the titanic regular-season opener against Minnesota:

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Woah what a time warp. These videos are awesome. I remember the 87 season vividly.

How far have we come?? Superbowl champs!! This video is worth while to watch for all the newer members of the Who Dat Nation.