Let the good times roll. A New Orleans Saints TL.

Awesome! You were there for the Gilliam kickoff return?

I was there!!!! back when an under 18 could get a north end zone ticket for $1-

Went to many a game in that stadium...I really think Tulane screwed up when they should have torn down all the steel portions of the stadium and kept what was left...

Anyway one of these days I'll get down to a game at Yulman...
 
I was there!!!! back when an under 18 could get a north end zone ticket for $1-

Went to many a game in that stadium...I really think Tulane screwed up when they should have torn down all the steel portions of the stadium and kept what was left...

Anyway one of these days I'll get down to a game at Yulman...

Yulman is nice. How far away do you live? I'm about an hour from campus.
 
3. Pigs Fly High
Many teams made offers to the Saints for their 2001 NFL Draft first overall pick, but in the end they accepted the offer from the San Diego Chargers, for their first overall pick the Saints received the Chargers First round and second round pick 4th and 35th overall respectively, along with perennial Pro bowler LB Junior Seau and SS Rodney Harrison. With their pick the Chargers took QB Michael Vick from Virginia tech. With their 4th overall pick the Saints took RB LaDainian Tomlinson and their 31st and 32nd pick on WR's Reggie Wayne and Chad Johnson respectively and their 35th pick on OT Matt Light. The Cowboys who lost out to the Chargers used their 23rd overall pick to select QB Drew Brees from Purdue.

The 2001 season was another fantastic year for the Saints, going 14-2 they started the season 13-0 until they were shocked at Indiapolis by and inspired Tom Brady performance and lost their next game against the 7-7 Chargers as Michael Vick put in another fantastic performance to make himself a candidate for Offensive ROTY. The saints would bounce back on the final week scalping the Redskins 10-52. Peyton Manning with the help of his outstanding rookie recivers had another MVP year, breaking Marino's TD record, completing 455 passes out of 632 attempts with a passing percentage of 72.0, passing for 49 touchdowns and 5 interceptions and 4766 yards. The feat lead him to become the first unanimous choice for League MVP.

The Saints had many stand out performances that season, WR's Reggie Wayne and Chad Johnson both had near 1000 yard receiving yards, 976 and 943 respectively. Junior Seau won Defensive Player of the Year, but the main standout behind Manning would be RB LaDainian Tomlinson who rushed for 1683 yards and carried 11 TD's, winning him Offensive ROTY, just ahead of Miachael Vick.

The Post season that year was dominated by talk of a rematch from last years Superbowl. In the end of the season the Saints led the NFC as the 1st seed, Eagles 2nd, Bears 3rd, Green Bay took 4th seed, Cowboys went 5th lead by rookie QB Drew Brees took seed and 49ers lead by Marc Bulger were the 6th seed to round of the NFC.

The AFC were led by the 15-1 Steelers as the 1st seed, Raiders 2nd seed, Colts 3rd seed, Ravens 4th seed, Dolphins 5th Patriots took the 6th seed position.

In the AFC Wild card round the the Colts swept the Patriots at Indi 10-34, the game showed the stark contrast between both teams QB's, Brady was proactive throughout the game and took the initiative when it presented itself, while Bledsoe was ineffective and was unable to find the pass even though his recievers did well to lose their markers. the Ravens hosted the Dolphins and a boring game, neither side where creative offensively and the only TD of the game came from a pick 6 during the 4th quarter to seal victory for the Ravens. 9-13. On the side the NFC Wild card games where no better, the Bears won against the 49ers 18-21 and the match at Lambeau Field had the same score as the Packer progressed athe expense of the Cowboys.

The AFC Divisional round games saw the Steelers overcome the Ravens once again in the playoffs 14-24 progressing to face the Colts who upset the Raiders at Oakland by a score of 14-3. In the NFC Divisional round games the Saints over came Favre's Packers at the Superdome 17-31, they would face the Eagles who were able to grind out a victory over the Bears by a score of 14-17.

The Championship rounds ended how the masses wanted it to end both the Saints won 21-24 over the Eagles and the Steelers would beat Colts with the same score, once again the Super Bowl would be a rematch from the previous year. This time It would be held at the Louisiana Superdome, the home of the Saints.

As Super Bowl week neared the city of New Orleans picked up a party atmosphere as the inhabitants, prayed and hoped for a win. The match would be considered a classic as the highest scoring gme to date. Both teams QB's threw for 4 TD's, Tomlinson and Bettis would rush for 2 more. With 1:43 left in the 4th Quarter the Saints where held to a second field goal taking a 42-48 lead. With the final drive of the game Kurt Warner would take the Steelers to the Saints 6 yard line. with 4 seconds left they ran a Packer Sweep, Bettis took the ball and rushed to the end zone, but was tackle by Junior Seau and despite Bettis's attempt to lunge for the end zone he was 1 yard short. The Saints had won their first Super Bowl and Manning took MVP honours and Mike Ditka would be given a special coaching award by NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue for becoming the first head coach of the Super Bowl era to win it all with 2 different franchises.

The State of Louisiana erupted in celebration, 2 days after the win the team organised a parade around the city center to celebrate their victory. I was here Buddy Diliberto made good on his promise to wear a dress and walk down the middle of Bourbon Street if the Saints won the Super Bowl. He was joined by many thousands of Saints fan in the feat as nearly 100000 fans came to see the parade.

Victory for the Saints would be bitter sweet as days later Mike Ditka declared his retirement from coaching. The teams front office scrambled to find his replacement and 2 weeks later they announced that Bill Parcells would be their new head coach.
 
I'm enjoying thus timeline, since it's been a Saints wank so far.

Any chance you can saddle the Failclowns with Aaron Brooks?

XD

Although, seriously, I think I'd rather see them go through their own version of the Billy Joes era, I mean, No. 2 did lead us to a couple of almost playoff runs that were mainly spoiled by the fact that Jim Haslett was a defensive coach that didn't know jack about defense...
 
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