Saints Pre-Season Forecast

Antonio Brown’s 62 yard touchdown reception with 1:35 on the clock brings the Pittsburgh Steelers from behind in a 25-21 victory over the Washington Redskins and (Drew Brees clone) Kirk Cousins (NFL MVP) to win the Super Bowl.  That’s how it will end.  How will this football season begin?

With fantasy football of course.

Because you’re a Saints Fan, and we specialize in fantasy.

We think the Saints have improved their team through the draft and free agency, and we are right.

But every other team believes the same thing.  I think the word is delusional.  But what would life be without a little delusional optimism?

As I write this the rumor is that the Saints, after assessing their Quarterback through a pre-season in which the team performed like they were unsynchronized swimmers, liked what they saw of Drew Brees enough to discuss what may be a 4 year $100 million contract on the 37 year old.  Brees has elected to play hardball, rather than offer a Brady-like home team discount, which is certainly his right.  The problem is that when you look up “dead money” in the dictionary you see a picture of Mickey Loomis, the Saints GM.  Loomis makes mistakes, like everyone else who is alive, but has the unfortunate distinction of making mistakes that are gargantuan in zero’s and crippling in impact.  His latest scheme of building a wall around Drew Brees and making Atlanta pay for it, is unlikely to gain any traction, so Brees, by taking such a large percentage of the payroll may in fact be signing his own decapitation warrant.  It's like sending Hillary Clinton out without body guards.  One thing is for sure in the Brees negotiation, the longer the Saints wait, the more the price goes up, as lesser but younger QB’s sign lucrative contracts.

But we soldier on.  We have Mark Ingram to not take any pressure off.  We have a new wide receiver named Mike Thomas who better be a Colston/Moore combo if he’s going to help, and we have an offensive line that needs to jell yesterday.  We’re betting on a bunch of rookie cornerbacks to help Delvin Breaux, and we’ll try to forget the two bungled draft choices of Peat and Grayson that could have been defensive help, like a pass rush to protect the kiddie squad that will be chasing receivers.  Just for fun, google the two drafts and take a gander at the players that were available when we pulled these two out of the hat.  I’m not saying they can’t be serviceable pros.  I’m just saying it’s a time-worn Saints tradition to dwell on what could’ve been.  It keeps us insane.

New defensive coordinator Dennis Allen seems to have advanced the defense over that guy with my profile.  The offense actually ran the ball on first down throughout the preseason, so we probably didn’t get a good look at what they can do.  After weeks of pre-season and training camp, the Saints decided they didn’t like either kicker and booted them both in favor of a rookie who had been cut elsewhere, in case you’re wondering what desperation smells like.

So, after all of that, it’s time for my prediction.  I won’t get fooled again.  I’m well aware that some teams improve steadily throughout the year, and while that hasn’t been the Saints M.O. it’s a possibility given the youth and talent on board. Still, the best I can muster up, with a healthy Brees throwing for 5K, is a 9-7 record, barely missing the playoffs.  I reserve the right to amend that prediction at about 1:30 on Sunday.  See you in the dome.

At the Cinema - August 2016

Gleason – 10

One after another they come – outstanding documentaries that tell us “You think you know, but you really don’t.”

Gleason is the latest.  It’s the astoundingly candid story of the journey of Steve Gleason.  I’m guessing most people don’t know who he is, especially if they are not part of the rabid group we call “sports fans.” 

So let me start here.  The New Orleans Saints are now in their 50^th year and only one player has a statue outside their stadium.  It’s Steve Gleason.

In 2005, there was Hurricane Katrina.  Previously known as the home of the Saints as well as several Super Bowls, the Louisiana Superdome become a refuge for thousands of displaced New Orleans residents, and it wasn’t a good host – it certainly wasn’t meant for this.  It became a symbol for everything that went wrong in the city during the flooding that followed that hurricane.  The Saints became nomads, playing in Baton Rouge and San Antonio, and for a while it seemed that the city would lose one of its most precious commodities, a football team that had never amounted to much; never really earned the zeal it generated.

It took a year to bring the dome and the Saints back, and they started the season 2-0 on the road behind an unknown new coach that was suspected to be the latest in a long line of dubious hires, and a cast-off quarterback who was recovering from a devastating injury.  They came home to their dome.  They beat the hated Atlanta Falcons that night.  That’s where Steve Gleason comes in.  In a scoreless game, Gleason stormed through and blocked a punt, and Curtis Deloach recovered in the end zone.  It was the first Saints score in the dome in over a year and that roar is the loudest, most emotional sound I’ve ever heard.  Everyone there that night would tell you the same thing.  The punt block is what is depicted in that statue.  It will be the first of many iconic moments that would be piloted by that coach, that quarterback, and that team that first made it to an NFC Championship game, then 3 years later won a Super Bowl.

But Steve Gleason wasn’t done affecting the world.  First he had to get real unlucky.  He retired, and was stricken with ALS – Lou Gehrig’s disease, and he began a health descent that he would chronicle on film for his unborn son Rivers.  It is from those videos that a most compelling story is compiled..  

I’m going not going to tell you what happens but I will tell you how it’s going to make you feel.

INADEQUATE – Steve Gleason has accomplished more since he lost his ability to speak, which he now does via computer, than most of us will do in a lifetime.  It has provided him an opportunity to substantially change health care and benefits for ALS victims.  He formed the Gleason foundation and it has been relentless.

ENAMORED – With Michelle, his wife.  Watching what she goes through and how she handles it, from a visit to a faith healer, to a devastatingly frank bedroom scene, to the day to day commitment, makes her a bigger star than any actress.  She is winning at real life. 

SYMPATHETIC – The no-holds barred approach to this documentary extends to Steve’s uneven relationship with his father who questions Steve’s faith, while questioning God on why this is happening. We’ve all had moments with our family that are tough, but they aren’t on film.

ASTOUNDED – At what they are willing to show.  The disease is graphically depicted.  There are times you just can’t watch, and there are times when you won’t believe what you are seeing.

THANKFUL – for what you have.  We live in a world where everyone complains constantly and social media allows us to bitch, bitch, bitch, but we have so much that we do so little with.

Steve Gleason does so much with so little that if you’re not moved by this movie, check your pulse.

You may have been dead for years.  As for Steve Gleason, he's got more to do. 

 

I Don't Want to Thank the Academy

The odds are that I’m never going to stand on the Oscar stage and give an acceptance speech, so I thought I would go ahead and give one today.

I want to thank all of those people who worked on the project with me.  But I’m not going to name you now because I’ve already thanked each and every one of you in person.

I want to thank my wonderful wife.  I want to thank all my friends and family, and there are too many to name now, but they know how much they mean to me.

No, tonight I have others to thank.  Tonight I especially want to thank the unsung heroes of my life.  No, not Drew Brees or Roberto Clemente.  Tonight I want to thank my teachers and coaches, who influenced me so much as I was trying to gather together my particular toolbox to go out and repair the world.  I’m thinking of one in particular.  His name was Royce Ladner and he taught Senior English and Literature at Long Beach High School in Long Beach, Mississippi. 

What a fun year that Senior Year was.  I remember that first discussion test which shocked us, in that only 4 of us passed.  Some of my classmates had never failed a test before and I remember their dismay, but it was like a college level exam, and we were instantly better prepared for college. 

I remember that we broke up into groups of four to reenact a Shakespearean play.  Steve Woodfield, Jerry McCullough, Jeff Jenkins and I did Hamlet, and we were great, if I do say so.  We decided to have a little fun, and we got the class to vote for some awards.  We had a ceremony and gave out our awards for acting.  We called them "the Roycie’s."  We crafted the awards out of a block of wood, and put a red pen on it, because Mr. Ladner was deadly with a red pen as we had already found out on that test and many others.  I’m pretty sure Jeff got best actor in the class, Hamlet got best play, and we gave Mr. Ladner a special merit award for his reading of Beowulf, which was a thing of grossness unlike anything we had ever heard before.  But once you heard him read it, you never forgot it.  Can’t even tell you how many correct Jeopardy answers I’ve gotten from it.

He made us memorize a sonnet, and I can still remember most of it.  I can’t find my keys half the time, I can’t remember who won last year’s World Series, but I can still compare thee to a summer’s day.

Royce Ladner died Tuesday. 

I’m not sure I ever even saw him after I graduated, so this is an inadequate thank you.  I know little about him except that he was a great teacher.  I certainly never forgot his class, nor its impact on me.  Teachers and coaches are underappreciated in our society, but we all know that.  They bring varying degrees of passion and dedication, and on every payday they are reminded that we undervalue them.  But they all make a difference, some big and some small. They can’t all be as effective and memorable as Mr. Ladner was at English and Literature during the 1970-71 school year, but that’s perfectly fine.  The fact that they choose a life of teaching is pretty amazing.

I’m not good at clichés so I’m not going to say “Rest in Peace Mr. Ladner” because I’m not sure what that means, and I’m not going to say “You will be missed” because I think that’s a given.  So here’s the thing I most want to say to Mr. Ladner.  “You made a difference.”  Your life meant something, you impacted a lot of people, many never forgot you, and I know I think of your standards often - mostly when I see what passes for grammar on the internet.  

It would turn you into Beowulf. 

Goodbye and Thanks.