Famed defensive end Bubba Smith menacing opposing quarterbacks while wearing a New Orleans Saints uniform. Bruising running back Larry Csonka breaking tackles on his way to the end zone for the game-winning touchdown. Future Hall-of-Fame defensive back Ken Houston returning an interception for a touchdown as the New Orleans defense sparks a victory for the Saints. All could have been possible had the New Orleans Saints front office had the scouting competence and foresight to draft the likes of Smith, Csonka and Houston. Instead, trades and draft selections for the likes of soon-forgotten players such as Gary Cuozzo, Les Kelley and Kevin Hardy helped to set a tone for futility that haunted the NFL franchise for many years. Unlike previous books about the New Orleans Saints that have either been an ode to the team or anecdotes about some of the team's more colorful characters, When the Saints Came Marching In: What the New Orleans NFL franchise did wrong (and sometimes right) in its expansion years is a comprehensive look at the crucial first five seasons of the New Orleans NFL franchise and how early decisions impacted the team. The book also takes a look at what the Saints might have done differently from 1967-1971 that could have taken the team in an alternate direction.

When the Saints Came Marching In

What the New Orleans NFL franchise did wrong (and sometimes right) in its expansion yearsBy George Becnel

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2009 George Becnel
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4389-9186-3

Contents

Foreword.................................ixBirth of a Franchise.....................1The 1968 Season..........................51The 1969 Season..........................83The 1970 Season..........................104The 1971 Season..........................129What Might Have Been.....................154

Chapter One

Birth of a Franchise

The ball was on the New Orleans 45-yard line. There were two seconds left in the game and the Saints were trailing 17-16. The Saints were on their way to their sixth loss in eight games. J.D. Roberts, coaching his first game for New Orleans as the Saints' interim head coach, sent in Tom Dempsey to attempt a field goal. It was a desperate move by a desperate team. Across the line of scrimmage, members of the Detroit Lions were laughing their heads off. Dempsey was about to attempt something never accomplished in the history of the National Football League - successfully kick a football 63 yards in a regulation game. The record was 56 yards. Earlier in the season, Dempsey kicked one from 55 yards out, but no one had ever connected from beyond 60 yards with the game on the line.

The ball was spotted eight yards behind the line of scrimmage at the New Orleans 37. Jackie Burkett snapped the ball to holder Joe Scarpati. Dempsey, born with a deformed right arm and clubbed right foot, swung his big right leg. The specially-made shoe made contact with the football. The ball headed toward the north end zone. It sailed over the crossbar with about a foot to spare, hit the ground in the end zone and bounced back onto the playing field. Dempsey and the Saints had pulled off an improbable, record-setting 19-17 win over the Lions.

Dempsey, the hero of the day, along with Roberts, was carried off the field by Saints players as fans rushed onto the field to celebrate. It was the single biggest individual achievement in the short history of the New Orleans Saints.

But even when the Saints did something right, it turned out to be wrong in the long term. The miracle win over the Lions was the only victory Roberts and his Saints would achieve during the final seven games of the season to finish the year 2-11-1.

Due largely to the fanfare surrounding the record-breaking kick, the one win was good enough to earn Roberts the title as permanent head coach and a new two-year contract. Roberts won a total of six games over the next two years and was fired. Dempsey's kick, which helped Roberts keep his job, set the New Orleans franchise back for many years. Following that 2-11-1 record in 1970, it would be another nine years before the Saints would have a break-even season and it took a total of 21 years before the team would post a winning record. A playoff win didn't occur until the 2000 season.

"Dempsey kicks his kick and sets the franchise back for four or five years," said Mike Detillier, a Louisiana-based NFL draft analyst. "If he had not made that kick, this team may have looked somewhere else to try and find a coach. Dempsey's kick sealed his history in New Orleans. It also sealed another two-and-a-half year run with J.D."

Ah, yes, the history of the New Orleans Saints.

A professional football team in New Orleans was destined to be called the "Saints."

On November 1, 1966, the National Football League announced that New Orleans would be home to the league's sixteenth professional football franchise. The fact the announcement came on All-Saints Day was no mere coincidence.

Since the early 1960s, New Orleans businessman Dave Dixon had been helping to stage exhibition professional football games involving teams from both the National Football League and its rival, the American Football League. The hope of Dixon and other professional football enthusiasts in the Crescent City was to show that there was enough support in the city to warrant a future franchise in New Orleans.

As early as a 1963 AFL exhibition game between the Houston Oilers and Boston Patriots, the name "New Orleans Saints" was being bandied about. Dixon, in a full-page advertisement in a New Orleans newspaper to drum up support for the exhibition contest wrote the following: Your interest now will mean that you are in the front row of those fans who want to put New Orleans in the major league columns and help our first major league team, the NEW ORLEANS SAINTS, go marching in!

It took a few more exhibition games and tireless behind-the-scenes machinations by Dixon before New Orleans was officially awarded a NFL expansion franchise in 1966.

The timing of the announcement involved more than just a tie-in to a religious holiday. Pete Rozelle, the NFL's youthful commissioner, announced the new team would begin play in 1967. Tulane Stadium would serve as the playing site on an interim basis until a new facility could be built. Funding for a new domed stadium would come with passage of Amendment No. 10, creating the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District. Election Day just happened to be scheduled for the following week. The NFL announcement made the vote a slam-dunk, setting into motion the creation of the Louisiana Superdome.

New Orleans had a team, and with passage of Amendment No. 10, a new stadium on the way, yet no owner. That changed on November 15, 1966, with the announcement of John Mecom Jr. as the team's majority owner. Mecom's competition for ownership of the team included a group led by Herman Lay of Frito-Lay and Edgar B. Stern Jr. of New Orleans, along with New Orleans businessman Louis J. Roussel.

More than a few heads were turned at the thought of the 27-year-old Mecom being the owner of the NFL's newest franchise. Mecom was the son of John Mecom Sr., a wealthy Texas oilman who had major holdings in Louisiana. Mecom and his group paid a reported $8.5 million to own the team.

"John Mecom's problem was that he surrounded himself with people who really weren't that sharp," said Pete Finney, who covered the Saints during the early years as sports editor of The New Orleans States-Item. "Mecom didn't like to offend anyone. He said yes to almost everyone. He didn't like to make enemies. He was almost too nice of a person. He wound up trusting the opinion of people who really didn't know what they were talking about. That's what got the franchise in trouble, as far as leadership went."

In light of how the franchise was run for the next 19 years under Mecom's ownership, it's easy to surmise the first wrong move made by the New Orleans franchise was to hand over the team to the young Texan. Yet, being young and the son of inherited wealth, in and of itself, should be no disqualification from pro football ownership.

All one has to do is look at another young Texan of the same era. Like Mecom, Lamar Hunt was the son of a wealthy Texan. In the late 1950s, the professional football landscape consisted of only 12 NFL teams. Sensing a growing enthusiasm for professional football around the United States, Hunt realized there were a number of major cities that were yearning for a professional franchise to call their own.

Hunt's answer was the creation of the American Football League in 1960. Hunt was the owner of the Dallas Texans, with other teams in the new league consisting of the Houston Oilers, New York Titans, Boston Patriots, Buffalo Bills, Los Angeles...