My love affair with the New Orleans Saints may be the worst-kept secret in the history of sports writing and social media.
They’re my heart. They’re my favorite team. Win, lose or draw there are 17 Sundays a year that I absolutely live for.
So, it should go without saying that the first half of the 2024 football season has been something of a roller coaster for me.
From the false hope of being a Super Bowl contender two weeks into the season to … well … whatever these past seven weeks have been for the Black and Gold, it’s been a trial by fire of my fandom.
There have been rants. Many, many, many rants about the long-term health of this franchise under the direction of General Manager Mickey Loomis and now-former head coach Dennis Allen.
There was the offseason, where Loomis smugly defended Allen and compared him to Hall of Fame head coaches behind a hubris-filled smacking of Doublemint.
There was his “look beyond the results” comment from earlier this season. Nevermind that in professional sports, all that matters are results.
Altogether, it seemed like we’d never get to the point where Loomis would do the right thing and fire Allen to begin the healing process.
Monday, the healing began when New Orleans fired Allen after a sub-par run of over two years at the helm.
The final straw came Sunday when the New Orleans Saints suffered a 23-22 road loss to the Carolina Panthers.
Those Carolina Panthers, allegedly the worst team in football, were gifted the game when the Saints decided it was brilliant game management to throw a fade play on 4th-and-4 with a little over a minute to play when they were close to midfield and simply needed a field goal to win.
It was in that moment that I realized that the Panthers weren’t alone in the argument for “NFL’s Worst Team” in its own division.
It was also the point of no return for the franchise. It was either fire Allen or risk completely alienating a fan base teetering on the edge of mutiny.
Thankfully, they did the right thing. But, we’re far from done if this healing process is truly to fully rebuild the team.
There’s one more domino that needs to fall. It’s been the root of the issue all along.
Mickey Loomis has been in the business of passing the buck, both literally and figuratively, for years now.
His cap hijinx in an attempt to keep the band together have long been a spot of contention for the fan base.
It hasn’t worked for a while now and only continues to bear bad fruit.
However, even more poisonous has been his penchant for blaming anyone but the man in the mirror.
When Jameis Winston called a play against Allen’s wishes last season to get running back Jamaal Williams a roster bonus, Loomis’ solution was to elect to not re-sign Winston.
That’s proven to be bad form.
When this offense finished 10th in total yards last season and the locker room was lost, Loomis chose to fire offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael over Allen despite the obvious fact that the head coach maintained no respect within the roster.
It’s kind of the Loomis way to not cut the head off of the snake, but rather chase it away and pretend like he’s solving the problem.
With Allen’s firing, there’s no one else left to blame.
It’s all on the man in the mirror at this point.
The only head left to roll is that of Loomis’. Succession plan be darned.
There’s nothing more that I want than for this franchise to be successful. For the New Orleans Saints to do that, it’s going to take a full-blown Detroit Lions style rebuild.
That’ll take Ms. Gayle doing something she doesn’t want to do.
But, for the sake of Tom’s legacy and the last 20 years of pulling the Saints from the doldrums it needs to be done.
Make it happen. Cut the head off of the snake.
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