Custom essays on The New Orleans Saints

The New Orleans Saints are a well-known all over the world American football team from the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Presently they are recognized as the champions of the National Football League. They play in the South Division of the National Football Conference. The Saints are very ambitious and promising. Although at first sight it seems that everything they possess now they got easily, if to penetrate into the intricate and very interesting history of this team, to look at the most prominent players and coaches of the past, it becomes clear that in order to form such a powerful team a lot of experience, courage and efforts should be put.
New Orleans Saints’ History
Dave Dixon, who is known for founding the Louisiana Superdome and the USFL, together with a civic group had been seeking a NFL franchise for a several years. It was all about a congressional approval of the proposed AFL-NFL merger. On November 1, 1966 (All Saints Day) the NFL officially awarded the city of New Orleans an NFL franchise.
As for the name of the team it was chosen through a popular fan contest organized by the New Orleans States-Item. Besides, it was almost evident that the team had to be called the Saints due to the day of awarding franchise. Moreover New Orleans City is recognized worldwide as a city of jazz and there is a well-known marching song “When the Saints Go Marching In”, which inevitably became the official fight song for the team.
The New Orleans Saints had a very strong and promising start in 1960s. Their original head coach was Tom Fears. Their first game was against the Los Angeles Rams at Tulane Stadium. It is necessary to mention John Giliam who performed greatly from the kickoff. He returned the opening managing to make it go a whole 94 yards for a touchdown Nevertheless the Saints didn’t win that game. The inaugural game in September wasn’t ended with victory for the Saints as well: 27 to 13 loss. The first win came only in November, after the game with Philadelphia Eagles – 31 to 24. Walt Roberts –one of the players of the team – managed to score three touchdowns. The result of the first season of the New Orleans Saints was 3-11, and that appeared to be an NFL record for most wins for an expansion team.
In the season of 1969 the New Orleans Saints got their best record at that time – at 5-9. Danny Abramovicz was responsible for such a success for gaining NFL receiving honors. The record of this player comprised seven touchdowns and 73 catches fro 1015 yards.
In the 1970s the New Orleans Saints were headed by the new coach JD Roberts.
Nevertheless the season couldn’t be called successful, the Saints managed to provide their funs with great victories as well: one of the most unforgettable winnings of the team was their victory over Detroit 19-17 in 1971 led by the new coach, particularly regarding Tom Dempsey’s fascinating last-second, NFL record, 63-yard field goal. It is interesting that Dempsey had to put special shoes on because he lacked toes on his right foot. And it was the new coach who prompted him. Alas, the team still ended up with 2-11-1 record which was very upsetting for their funs.
The year of 1971 let the Saints experience a bit of exciting glories with a new draft Archie Manning. Thanks to him the Saints gained some NFL upsets, the most famous of which is a win over the Los Angeles Rams at 24 to 20. Moreover the team managed to defeat the Dallas Cowboys who were the Super Bowl winners .
There were significant changes for better in the seasons of 1973 and 1974. The New Orleans Saints seemed to succeed in bouncing back through wins. But the following year the team was moved from Tulane to Superdome, where the horrible loss was soon to happen: they were terribly defeated by Cincinnati Bengals at 21 to 0.
It is necessary to mention that the head coach Roberts were fired in 1973 and the following coach John North went after him after 2-12 seasons. It was up to the franchise to make this decision.
In the late 1970s the quarterback Manning was recognized as a great player and in 1978 gained the NFC Player of the Year.
The year of 1979 was generally successful for the team even after their very low start. The record of that season was 8-8 (non-losing) .
In 1980 the Saints lost their first 14 games – the worst results for the NFL franchise. The record of the season was 1-15 and the record of the following year – 4-12. In 1983 their results were comparatively much better; they still couldn’t get their place in the playoffs. There was a pitiful difference – at 26-24.
In 1985 Tom Benson acquired the franchise. Jim Mora was appointed as a new head coach. Thanks to them the Saints gained their playoff appearance.
The most prominent moment of the 1980s was when rookie running back Reuben Mayes won an Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1986. Jim Mora put all his efforts to lead the Saints to 7-8-1 season.
In 1987 the New Orleans Saints lost the game to the San Francisco 49ers at 24 to 22. However in a week the Saints had an exciting victory over the Atlanta Falcons – 38 to 0. That was a special game as it was held on the day of anniversary of the day the team was founded, November 1. The season of 1987 was a successful one as it had 9 consecutive wins. Unfortunately the end of it was not so good: the Saints still lost a 31-10 game for the Minnesota Vikings.
In 1991 the saints had a brilliant start of 7-0. This year they were having their 25th anniversary. With an 11-5 season they won the NFC West title for the first time. Although the year was successful, the Saints were didn’t manage to play in the first playoff game with their loss to the Atlanta Falcons 27-20.
In 1996 the Saints’ record was 3-13. After that a head coach of the team Jim Mora resigned, in the mid of the season. Rick Venturi became an interim head coach. There was a certain positive moment concerning the franchise: it was the first time in the whole history that operation was held under one roof when it moved into its own facility in Metairie.
The year of 1997 is recognized through some important organizational changes. Bill Kuharich became the new president and general manager and Mike Ditka was appointed as a new head coach.
At that time the Saints had particular problems with franchise. The franchise of the New Orleans Saints was tightly linked with multiple failures and disappointments. Nevertheless there happened rare prominent events in the team career; the Saints didn’t seem to be still fiercely striving for win.
The team had a dismal during 3-13 season, therefore Benson was pushed to take some measures to prevent probable losing of the franchise. Benson acted categorically: he fired 22 employees, as ell as Kuharich and Ditka. The 13th head coach of the New Orleans Saints became Jim Haslett.
In 2000 the team reached their first playoff game due to their win over the St. Louis Rams with the score – 31-28. However the Minnesota Vikings defeated them once more in the second round with a record 34-16.
Between the seasons of 2001 and 2002 Benson fired the executive manager Randy Mueller though in 2000 he was awarded the NFL Executive of the Year. Benson refused to comment on his actions.
In the time period between the 2001 and 2003 playoffs were missed by the Saints.
In 2004 the first six games of the team had 2-4 scores and their first twelve games – 4-8 scores. Those results were poor for the team. Nevertheless Haslet managed to lead the team to the finale of the season, providing the Saints with playoff contention in the final week of the season. Although there were some distinguishing games won by the Saints they were not enough. The team was eliminated despite having beaten the Rams who had the same record.
In the season of 2005 the Saints finished 3-13 and one regular season contest in New Orleans wasn’t played because of the Hurricane Kathrina.
In 2006 Sean Payton became the new head coach of the team. Also the Saints acquired Pro Bowl quarterback Drew Brees – the former player of the San Diego Chargers.
The victims of the Hurricane Kathrina found their place to live in the Superdome, so the team had to nothing to do but find another place to play. NFL had them play a charity game first before letting them play a “home game” in the New Jersey Meadowlands against the New York Giants.
During the first home game after the Hurricane Kathrina the Saints defeated the Atlanta Falcons. There were incredibly high rates of attendance of that game and the broadcast of the game was a highest ever rating program. The game received a 2007 ESPY award for “Best Moment in Sports” .
In 2006 the Saints clinched their NFC South title on their home field first in the history of the team. In 2006, precisely on the Day of Christmas the New Orleans Saints clinched a first round playoff bye for the first time in franchise history. After that the New Orleans Saints managed to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles with the score 27-24, during the Divisional Playoffs in the Superdome in the 2006.
In 2007 it was announced that there were sold all the tickets for the season with the Saints playing. The first game of the season against the Indianapolis Colts was lost at 41-10, as ell as the following three games. However they had a victory over the Seattle Seahawks. Nevertheless after reaching 7-7 the team lost its final two games to finish 7-9.
The brightest season for a team was in 2009. The Saints got what they wanted – the victory in the league championship over the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV. Besides, it was for the first time in the history of franchise. With a record 13-0 the Saints set the best beginning to a season in the history of franchise. Also the team recorded the longest undefeated season according to an NFC team since the AFL-NFL merger. It is interesting o mention that TV ratings for Super Bowl 44 were the highest for any TV show in history.