Saints loose; but wait a minute; it's December!

Yes, my beloved Saints lost tonight. That's bad. And they lost to the Dallas cowgirls; that's worse. Hey Saints fans, check the calender; it's December. This is the first loss of the season with only two games to go. We could never say this before.

Let's be honest tonight. We lost; Dallas won. We played poorly tonight; Dallas did not, although Dallas did everything to help us out. On this night, we had no magic left. The Saints have played no where near as good as the early part of the season. That bothers me because playoff momentum is all about when a good team peaks. We are far from peaking right now. But it's still reality that the Saints are 13-1.

I want to focus the rest of this article on what I truly believe contributed to tonight's result. And some of what I'm about to criticize is understandable. Fans of a NFL franchise need to decide if they are a fan of the game, the team and the end result or if they need to create their own fantasy world. Every NFL city has this so I'm not just picking on New Orleans. But quite frankly, we as a fan base, and the putrid media we have down here, messed this up big time. For weeks now, everything has been 16-0 and perfect this and SuperBowl that. And with each passing week, the visible vocal message coming from the Saints locker room began to shift. Everyone talked more about the record, do we rest players in the end, can we compete with Indianapolis, etc. Newsflash: WE ARE NOT PLAYING THE COLTS. This weeks opponent, Dallas, ignored the Saints hype and put a game plan together that for most of the night looked like an old fashioned butt kicking.

Our local media has already crowned the Saints Super Bowl Champs. I understand home cooking, but this stupidity has gotten out of hand. We actually have people, businesses, Mardi Gras parades, concerts, church events cancelling all activity for Super Bowl weekend because the Saints will be there. Hello; you still have to earn your way to the Super Bowl. The best team in the NFL, by far, last year was the Tennessee Titans at 15-1. And it was an impressive 15-1. They got their heads handed to them in the only playoff game they got to participate in. Again, it's ok to believe in your team, it's assinine to carry on like we have, prompted by the media.

There are two great guilty villiams in this fiasco; the whole crew at WVUE-8, our Fox affiliate and Bobby Hebert on WWL radio. My goodness, WVUE will show 3 hours of drunk fans inventing new ways to pronounce Who-Dat and Bobby Hebert talks and talks and talks and talks and talks and talks and talks and talks. While he is skilled enough to give a football fan some meaty things to gnaw on, most of his schtick is Who Dat this and Who Dat nation that and let me answer your question before you ask it because I know better. These folks, along with others have whipped up fans, who know little about football to a point where I beleive it infiltrated the locker room. Do we really need Drew Brees on Leno?

For me, I want some analysis of the game. Hey Saints fans, anybody catch multiple ESPN and NFL network analysis all week about how Dallas defensive personnel stack up impressively against Saints offense? Or, how Dallas is devising a scheme to disrupt receiver routes? No, we want to know who else will cancel an event for Super Bowl weekend, who will produce another Saints in SuperBowl CD or how many interesting ways can we pronounce, sing, shout or write Who Dat. Hey gang, it's still about the game and we play them a week at a time.

I'm very proud of a 13-1 Saints, who still, despite a crappy game, were in a position in the end to tie the game. As for me, I want to know about the next game, and the game plan and what will our approach be for the playoffs. I don't care about hype. Even as I'm writing this a local station is interviewing fans on Bourbon Street. WHO CARES. And the last thing I want to hear this week is Bobby Hebert; he's still talking and talking and talkin and talking and talking and talking and talking and talking and talking. Geez dude, give it a rest.

Oh yea, Geaux Saints. Play professional football. And thanks for the 13 wins so far this year.