New Orleans aka “The Big Easy”
It’s an appropriate name for a city whose football team went more than a decade before having it’s first .500 season, and more than 20 years before having it’s first winning season.
The New Orleans Saints are 7-14 all time versus the Redskins, with their last loss coming December 17th, 2006 at the Superdome.
Often referred to as the “Aint’s”, their fans are usually distinguished by their brown paper-bag masks; a tribute to the shame a Saints fan must feel for rooting for a team with an overall record of 255-367 (.409) and only 8 winning seasons in the past 40 years. During that 40-year span the Saints are 2-6 in the playoffs.
For the geographically challenged; if you were to picture Louisiana as a big boot, New Orleans would be right on the toe. This is kind of appropriate since the Saints once had a kicker named Tom Dempsey who was born without any toes on his kicking foot.
If you had to pin down a specific Saint to which the team refers to in it’s name, it would have to be Saint Jude, the patron Saint of Lost Causes. The Saints very first play ever was an opening kick-off they returned for 94-yards for a touchdown…they went on to lose that game 27-13 and had a 3-13 record that year.
Many people know that the Saints were named for the song “When the Saints Go Marching In” but may not be aware that the tune was originally used as a funeral march!
The team owes it’s colors (black and gold) to their first majority shareholder (a Texas oilman) and Louisiana’s rich oil (aka: black gold) production. The team’s emblem is officially called a fleur-de-lis and is a common emblem that traces it’s roots back to French monarchy…it is also commonly used by a rank of older Cub Scouts known as Webelos.
For anyone who was never in, or had kids in the Cub Scouts it’s pronounced “WE-blows.”
There; now you know your opponent!