Are the New Orleans Saints,, playing in the raucous Mercedes Benz Superbowl, ready for Carolina Panthers tomorrow in the NFC playoff game? 

According to radio and TV talk show host Eric Asher, the Saints have a good chance of winning their first playoff game since 2013. After all, they have played and beat the Panthers twice this year and they are playing at home. However, they just came off a losing performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and they are hurt.

Will the New Orleans Saints make it three-wins-in-a-row tomorrow against the very tough Carolina Panthers in the Mercedes Benz Superdome?

That's obviously the top-of-mind question in Louisiana as the Drew Brees-led Saints play its first playoff game since 2013.

by Jim W. Miller
There was little question and little doubt the last time the Saints made it to the Super Bowl. Our local heroes went through the 2009 season like a buzz saw, winning their first 13 games and clinching the NFC top seed before the partridge flew into the pear tree. Oh, they had close wins at St. Louis, Washington and Atlanta, and, yes, they lost the last three meaningless games in a strategic move to rest the starters for the playoffs. But there was little doubt the Saints could and would win the Super Bowl. 

Jerry Jones’ first commissioner sabotage was Jim Finks

The NFL’s death spiral has turned inward. After the League has endured external disruptions over National Anthem protests, lower TV ratings, unhappy sponsors, lower attendance and concerns about whether the game is unsafe, Dallas owner Jerry Jones is leading an insurgency from within. Jones’ stated purpose is to stop a lucrative contract extension for Commissioner Roger Goodell that in reality would result in Goodell’s ouster.

If you watched the Saints’ game on Sunday, you were privy to a rare 3-minute segment that brought out the angels and the demons among NFL players, as well as a group kneel-down that, instead of a protest, revealed players' No. 1 fear. 

The New Orleans Saints have a wonderful 50-year relationship with long-suffering fans that have supported the team through mostly losing seasons. Unfortunately, the team is putting that relationship in jeopardy with their asinine position on the National Anthem controversy.

For some unknown reason, the Saints have decided to support the right of disgruntled players to kneel or sit either before or during the playing of the National Anthem. In week 3, it was ten players who sat and since that time multiple players have been kneeling before the National Anthem is played and then standing for the Star-Spangled Banner.

BY JIM W. MILLER

We all know the lament, and some of us have been writing about it for almost four years. Will Drew Brees, one of the NFL’s all-time great quarterbacks, go down in history as another Archie Manning? Great player on an average team. Sure, Brees won a Super Bowl which puts him in kind of a purgatory of greatness. Certainly higher than Archie, who never enjoyed a winning season in New Orleans, but not quite the Beulah Land of Peyton or even Eli, if you’re counting championships. 

For the first ten years of his tenure as Head Coach of the New Orleans Saints, Sean Payton was focused on football. He did not give his political opinions and rarely granted interviews. In fact, he seemed to despise the media and consider all of the reporters to be fools. Unfortunately, in the past year, Payton has been the one who has looked foolish. This is not due to his unimpressive results as Head Coach, leading his team to three straight losing seasons and a 2-2 record in 2017. Instead, it is due to his decision to enter the world of politics. 

The "Take a Knee" conflict that has developed between the NFL, NFL owners, NFL players and President Donald Trump and his supporters has sent shock waves and anger throughout America over the issue of whether the players and the league are being unAmerican and unpatriotic. 

The issue surrounding the Kaepernick-Trump-National Anthem-NFL and locally, the New Orleans Saints continues to swirl like a storm hitting a Caribbean Island today.