Pacman Jonesin for a Whuppin'

Adam, the lead writer and editor of the brilliantly named site Pacman Jonesin' gave me the heads-up about a post they ran about the worst fanbases in the NFL. Of course, his motivation for notifying me was that the Saints, and Gulf South fans, were on the list.

New Orleans Saints - I’m not going to lie — I hated doing this. In the end, I had to add the Saints to this list. Saints fans will point out the past few years, but let’s face it — a good team paired with a disaster rallied what had been a lethargic group of Ain’ts fans. I couldn’t rationalize putting Panthers, Vikes or Seahawks fans on this list instead. I’m not saying this group can’t become a great fan base, I’m just saying that NOLA fans were AWOL before Drew Brees, Katrina and Reggie Bush hit The Big Easy.

This was a friendly post, designed to prompt some friendly banter. It's obviously factually inaccurate--when was the last time the Saints had a blacked out game? The fan support is clearly good enough that they sell out each game. Beyond that, and aside from building a new stadium by ourselves, I'm not sure what the Saints' fans can do.

I think, to a certain extent, there is the tendency to blame-the-victim in posts like this. When fans don't support a team, is it because they are poor fans, or is it because their team is awful? In the case of the Gulf South fans, the support that they lend to other teams--LSU, Southern Miss, even my beloved Green Wave--leads me to believe that they are good fans. When the fans are given a good product to support, they are more-than-willing to support their teams. They have proven this over and over.

So let's show them what kind of fans we are. Go to their site. Tell them (preferably using friendly terms) what great fans the Saints actually have. Pacman Jonesin called down the storm. Let's see if they can handle the rain.