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 New
Orleans Saints, professional football team and one of five teams
in the Western Division of the National Football Conference (NFC)
of the National Football League (NFL). Under the league’s
realignment plan, which will take affect in 2002, the Saints
will play in the South Division of the NFC. The Saints play at
the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, and wear
uniforms of gold, black, and white.
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The
team is named after the Dixieland classic
and team fight song, “When the Saints Go
Marchin’ In.” The Saints joined the NFL as
an expansion team in 1967. The new club
struggled for many years, employing six head
coaches, posting 12 consecutive losing
records, and averaging only four wins per
season from 1967 to 1978. The team’s leader
during much of this time was quarterback
Archie Manning, who won the NFL player of
the year award in 1978. The greatest moment
in Saints history came on November 8, 1970,
when New Orleans kicker Tom Dempsey sealed a
19-17 upset of the Detroit Lions with a
63-yard field goal—the longest in NFL
history. |
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The Saints began playing in the
Superdome in 1975, and four years later
they recorded their first non-losing
mark, finishing with an 8-8 win-loss
record under head coach Dick Nolan. The
team’s woes continued during the 1980s,
however, and New Orleans was never able
to compile more than 8 wins in a season.
Under head coach Jim Mora, the Saints
achieved their first winning record and
their first playoff appearance in 1987.
A former defensive coodinator for the
New England Patriots, Mora was named NFL
coach of the year. Running back Rueben
Mayes, the 1986 rookie of the year, and
wide receiver Eric Martin, a three-time
1,000-yard gainer, anchored the NFC’s
second-best offense. Mora steered the
Saints to three consecutive trips to the
postseason from 1990 to 1992. |
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New
Orleans assembled the NFC’s toughest defense
in 1990 and 1991, led by one of the best
linebacker units in the league. In 1992
linebackers Rickey Jackson, Vaughn Johnson,
Sam Mills, and Pat Swilling all played in
the Pro Bowl, and the Saints led the league
in quarterback sacks. Despite its tenacious
defense, the team lost in the first round
each time it made the playoffs. At the end
of the 1996 season, former Chicago Bears
head coach Mike Ditka replaced Mora. Ditka
was fired after the 1999 season. The New
Orleans Saints have never played in the
Super Bowl.
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