Jul
29By Pat Yasinskas
METAIRIE, La. –- Just got settled into a hotel near the New Orleans Saints practice facility and wanted to catch you up on some events.
By MARK CRAIG, Star Tribune
Will Saints party on in New Orleans?
Probably not. Of the past 11 Super Bowl winners, only the 2004 Patriots made it back to the Super Bowl. Five of those 11 champions didn’t even make it back to the playoffs the following season. There’s also never been a repeat champion in the NFC South. Yes, the Saints will contend with an offense led by Drew Brees and Sean Payton, and an aggressive defense that matches coordinator Gregg Williams’ personality. But can a defense led by 34-year-old safety Darren Sharper duplicate last year’s 47 takeaways (including postseason)? That’s an awful lot to count on.
By Steve Hunt/FoxSportsSouthwest.com
Even the non-sentimental football fans had to feel a little something when the Saints hosted the Lombardi Trophy in February as Super Bowl champs. It truly was a magical moment for a franchise and a region that has endured its share of struggles, especially over the last few years. However, as is the case with any champ, they didn’t get much time to enjoy it as questions about whether or not they could repeat were quickly asked. New Orleans clearly has a rough road to return to the big game but it’s not entirely out of the question. Here are five reasons why they won’t likely repeat:
A Tougher Schedule
To the victor go the spoils, an adage that applies to every Super Bowl champion. That’s because the following year, the titleholder gets the luxury of playing a first-place schedule. The Saints will learn that quickly as they open the season on Thursday, September 9 against Minnesota at the Superdome. Eleven days later comes a trip to San Francisco, which figures to be a much-improved club and a team some figure will win the NFC West title. Besides their divisional games against the likes of Atlanta, Carolina and Tampa Bay, New Orleans will face tough road tests at Arizona on October 10, in Dallas on Thanksgiving Day, at Cincinnati on December 5 and in Baltimore on December 19. Sean Payton’s team will have the luxury of hosting the Vikings in the opener and the Steelers on Halloween but most of their key non-division games are away from home.
History says the Saints, like so many other Super Bowl winners, will fall short in 2010. If it happens, some will say they couldn’t handle success, while others will point to a few critical injuries, and still others will say the division closed the gap. New Orleans has Drew Brees under center, and he will be driven to repeat. As for injuries, the Saints went to the Super Bowl with six starters on injured reserve last year, and they might in fact be a stronger team this season. It’ll be tough to stay hungry, but the early season schedule with a rematch on opening night with the Vikings, a trip to San Francisco and hosting the Falcons should be enough motivation to have a solid camp.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Drew Brees is the big winner at the ESPY Awards, collecting four trophies, including male athlete of the year.
The New Orleans Saints quarterback also won best championship performance, NFL player and shared the team award with his Super Bowl champion colleagues.
The New Orleans Saints were also voted best team of the year at the awards ceremony in Los Angeles
Skiier Lindsey Vonn won female athlete of the year honors Wednesday night at the show hosted by “Saturday Night Live” comic Seth Meyers and aired live on ESPN from the Nokia Theatre.
Vonn was also chosen best female Olympian.
Landon Donovan of the U.S. national soccer team picked up three trophies, for best moment in a World Cup game against Algeria, best MLS player and the performance under pressure award.
Time has an impact on a lot of things. Look at your waistline, or hairline. Think about your ability to handle two consecutive nights out in Vegas, compared to when you were 21.
You would think time would also change the hierarchy of the NFL’s top players.
Surprisingly, it hasn’t done so the past six or seven years.
Any list of the top players still starts with Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. It’s been that way for a while.
Manning and Brady. Brady and Manning.
It’s chic to say Drew Brees has joined the Big Two to make it a Big Three at the top of the quarterback pecking order — and some might even have Brees ahead of Brady. But if you took a poll of general managers and asked them to pick the quarterback they’d most want to play with right now, I’d bet Manning and Brady would get the most votes.
That’s why they top my list of the Top 50 NFL players, just as they have the past five years.
But you can excuse the Saints for cracking a smile when they think about losing Fujita. Because when they do, they inevitably think about how that’s really all they lost. Oh sure, they said goodbye to running back Mike Bell, but he was third on the depth chart. They released defensive ends Charles Grant and Bobby McCray, but Grant was slowing down and sidelined during the playoff run, and McCray has been replaced by respectable longtime Bear Alex Brown. And sure, the Saints traded offensive tackle Jammal Brown. But they didn’t need Brown; he missed last season with injury.
In short, every key contributor from the Super Bowl champion Saints is back in 2010. (Except for Fujita.) 100 out of 100 G.M.’s would gladly play that hand — an opportunity to defend a title with the entire championship roster save for one solid defensive role player.
METAIRIE, La. — I’ll have a lengthy column in the next few days on New Orleans Saints’ Malcolm Jenkins and how he’s making the transition from cornerback to safety, but first we’ve got a bit of news on the first-round pick from 2009.
Jenkins missed Saturday morning’s minicamp practice because of a knee contusion, coach Sean Payton said. Jenkins had worked as the first-team free safety in Friday’s sessions. But Payton said Jenkins bumped knees with a teammate Friday afternoon. Payton also said the injury is minor and he said it was possible Jenkins could practice this afternoon or in Sunday morning’s final minicamp practice.
A few other observations:
HOUMA — With the oil spill threatening Louisiana’s coast and hurricane season set to begin Tuesday, former New Orleans Saints linebacker Scott Fujita is teaming up with the America’s Wetland Foundation to raise money for wetland restoration projects.
Fujita, now with the Cleveland Browns, donated $12,500, half of his Super Bowl winnings, in April to the foundation for plantings and is a strong supporter of coastal restoration. With the foundation, Fujita is launching a campaign and a text-messaging drive to support the volunteer restoration projects and raise money to help replant wetlands impacted by the oil spill.
By JON KRAWCZYNSKI, AP Sports Writer May 28, 1:28 am EDT
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)—Opening night can’t get here fast enough for the New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings.
Saints safety Darren Sharper(notes) is engaging in some serious trash talk on Twitter with former teammates Bryant McKinnie(notes) and Visanthe Shiancoe(notes) of the Vikings, with Brett Favre(notes) right in the middle of it.
Sharper touched things off after Favre announced he was having ankle surgery last week. The talkative safety tweeted “X marks the spot” in reference to the quarterback’s ankle. The comment touched a nerve with the Vikings, who believe the Saints took several late hits on their 40-year-old quarterback in New Orleans’ overtime victory over Minnesota in the NFC title game in January.
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