The Saints may figure that they can just hold the line and eventually Brees will give in and accept the one-year franchise tender or accept a long-term deal worth less money than Brees thinks he's worth.

Saints owner Tom Benson has said the sides were close to a deal, but the Saints haven't offered him anything in the ballpark of the kind of contract he'd be willing to sign.

Brees said they weren't as close as people would be led to believe and that the numbers that haven been thrown around and some of the other places have been heavily inflated.

Brees said he has always done everything asked of him by the Saints, and now it's time for the Saints to reward his loyalty with a "reasonable" and "appropriate" contract, which he says the Saints so far haven't offered him.

It appears the Saints want Brees to play out the season on his franchise tender.  Which raises a big red flag with a question mark asking why?

Hartley and more Saints

Kicker Garrett Hartley has lost 22 pounds and said is fully recovered from the hip injury that caused him to miss last season. He'll battle John Kasay, 42, for the starting job...Tight end Dave Thomas, who missed a lot of games with a concussion last season, said he has fully recovered and ready to play...

Doug Mouton is the news sports director at WWL-TV, replacing the retired Jim Henderson. Mouton is moving from north shore bureau chief...Former Saints All-Pro safety Darren Sharper will be a football an analyst for the station...

SOME hither, others yon: A wake for former De La Salle and Tulane standout Frank Wills, who died on Friday, will be held on Thursday at Jacob Schoen Funeral Home, 3827 Canal St., from 6 p.m to 9 p.m. Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to noon of Friday at St.Henry's Church, 812 Gen. Pershing St. Interment will be at St. Joseph's Cemetery No. 2 on Washington Ave...The Voo Doo have placed for LSU DE Rahim Alem on injured reserve...

Fourth-ranked LSU (40-13, 17-10 SEC) concludes the regular season this week at top-ranked South Carolina (38-13, 17-9 SEC) with the opportunity to compete for the SEC championship.

The  Tigers are one game behind Kentucky and a half game behind South Carolina in the over-all league standings. LSU has already clinched at least for the SEC Western Division title, and the Tigers have locked up at least the No. 2 seed in next week's SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala.

LSU righthander Kevin Gauseman (8-1, 2.95 ERA), the SEC's strikeouts leader with 112, will start Thursday's game. Lefthander Michael Roth (5-0, 2.60 ERA) will start for the Gamecocks.

LSU junior leftfielder Ralph Rhymes continues to lead the the nation in batting average, hitting .476.

All three games of this week's LSU-South Carolina baseball series will be televised.

Thursday's game begins at 6 p.m. and it will televised by Fox Sports South. Friday's game begins at 6 p.m. and it will be produced by the Jumbo Sports Network. The game can be seen on Cox Sports Television. Saturday's game begins at noon and it will be televised nationally on ESPNU.