I’ve been realizing as of late that there’s no way Deuce and Payton are both on this team next year. I’ve been thinking that they will most likely trade him for a draft pick or two, but that may not happen now because Payton and his egomaniacal insanity refuse to give Deuce enough playing time to truly prove himself to the rest of the league. Still, I think any RB depleted teams will know that Deuce has at least a couple more years of usefulness in the tank and might go after him for a lower round draft pick.

In case you haven’t sensed it, I’ve lost most of my love and respect for Sean Payton over this one matter. Even if he somehow turns this team around and wins the Super Bowl, I don’t think I can forgive his treatment of Deuce and Deuce’s fans. This is blatant disrespect to a man who has been a solid contributor to this team, city, and region for the past seven years. Have I missed something this season? Has Deuce displayed poor ball control and turned it over once? Has he not given all of his extra effort to pick up every possible yard on every play? How many times have we seen him move the pile for extra yardage after the initial hit? Is there a lingering injury that hasn’t been reported? Why doesn’t he get more than 8 touches against a team with the worst run defense in the league? No one knows because our coach refuses to address or even acknowledge the question, and the media are too cowardly to press him on it. This is clearly either an egomaniacal insistence by Payton to get it done with the players he brought in or an attempt to ensure that Deuce doesn’t come close to meeting his contract incentives. Either explanation would be unforgivable to me.

The TV announcers on Sunday were just speculating that the reason was that “Deuce isn’t 100%.” Really? Then why hasn’t he been on any injury reports? Why hasn’t Deuce said this? It was just over a month ago that he was claiming he was fine. Call me an overly-sentimental, conspiracy-theorist if you like, but there has to be something more to this. If the Saints had lost Sunday, we would all be demanding to know why Deuce wasn’t more involved, but since they did manage to win, most aren’t questioning it. That’s OK. I fully understand how most would just prefer to enjoy the win. But, for me and many others, this insistence on not getting an apparently healthy Deuce McAllister more involved for all but one game this season (49ers) has been a nagging source of frustration that deserves to be fully addressed by the head coach and organization.

I hope all in attendance this Sunday will let Payton know that we the fans haven’t forgotten about Deuce. At this point, I wouldn’t even be surprised if Payton refuses to give him the ball close to the goal line so he can break the Saints TD record. After all, if he does it would be Haslett’s player setting the record and not one of his. I know that sounds over-the-top cynical, but I’ve lost all patience with Payton. Be a man Coach, and just let us know why you choose not to get Deuce more involved.