The Only Thing We Know Is That We Don't Know Anything

I first thought about writing this post as a reaction to Pat Yasinskas' article yesterday in which he praised the Saints off-season thus far. 

Very quietly, the New Orleans Saints might be having the best offseason of any NFC South team.    

But I left it alone and put it out of my mind. Then the guys over at the Times-Pic apparently read Pat Y's piece and decided to regurgitate the information in their own write-up today. 

By almost any measure, they've had the most successful offseason of any NFC South team

So now I'm forced to say something about this theoretical concept.

It's ridiculous! 

Judging an off-season while it's still taking place is like evaluating the NFL draft in May. Like reviewing a restaurant before even looking at the menu. The success of an off-season can be determined only by the success of the season(s) that follow it. We don't know how the 2009 season is going to turn out, do we? And without this information - which we won't have for another nine months or so - this is all just pure speculation; a guess. Listen to the contradiction and presumption from the Times-Pic...

Of course that doesn't guarantee success six months from now, when these teams finally will kick off in the competition that counts. But it's sure been a good start for the Saints...

This doesn't make sense to me. If they don't know whether the Saints will be successful when the season starts, how can they label this start as "good?" Should the Saints wind up with yet another disappointing season in 2009 then I would say we are right smack dab in the middle of a fruitless off-season filled with bad moves and bad luck. I think what all these guys really mean to say is that the Saints appear to have done the better job at addressing their needs this off-season and we hope that will translate on the field this year. Period.

Yeah, the Saints seem to be on the right path; I get it. But for crying out loud do you not know anything about this team? Is this your first year as a fan? Do we have to go through this every...single...year? We know how this could all really end so let's not make such a big deal about it. But instead of re-typing the truth of the matter all over again I am just going to quote myself from a post I wrote last off-season. It is as relevant this year as it was last year.

 If we are truly being honest with ourselves, there are a lot of question marks still out there that we still don't have answers to and I think, at least in my case, this optimism is causing me to gloss over some serious issues. This team might just be a mere illusion, a house of cards that could topple over at any moment. Remember this time last season? We were all as excited and hopeful as we are right now, but now looking back we can easily pinpoint certain moments or flaws that are quite obvious but didn't seem so obvious at the time. Be prepared, because by the end of this season, I could easily imagine ourselves looking at each other in sheer confusion, and in total shock of how it all went so horribly wrong. No matter what we think right now about this team, we have to admit to ourselves that we really know nothing. That we're all just fans and the only control we have over the situation is how tightly we can keep our fingers crossed. The season will inevitably play itself out and reveal devastating injuries, last second field goals, goal line stands and complete blow outs, among other things, all with incredible excitement and surprise, reminding us all why we love this darn game so much in the first place. But it is sad to note that the Saints may very well be on the wrong end of some of those unbelievable moments .   

I was right, wasn't I? So for the love of all that is holy can we all please just be cool. At least until the draft.