Careful what you ask for. What do you think the problem is with teams like Dallas or Philly or Cincy? Why can’t they get over the hump? In those towns, they use the media to communicate. Nothing is handled in-house. The media is a gossip superhighway, and things are said and then feelings are hurt and it spirals out of control. You have at least one star player a year in those towns that asks to be released. Is that what we want in NOLA? Just so we have more to talk about in the offseason. How did we get Shockey in the first place? Why can’t TO find a home? Why does Ocho want out? The media is their sounding board and they talked to much to people who were there to break down every hurt feeling and publish it world wide before the sweat dried on the back of their neck. The media will kill the chemistry of a great team. We have kept everybody in place because noone has been able to voice their dirty laundry in the newspaper. Let’s keep it that way and win the Superbowl. New England doesn’t talk to media. Patten knows what he is doing.

I thought he was a contributing blogger. Huh, learn something new every day.

I agree with Payton’s stance on the media. It’s what smart coaches do, keep problems in house and avoid drama. But the press shouldn’t be part of it. The press should try to wheedle answers out of the team. In this battle it seems local reporters are way out matched, getting information only as the Saints dish it out.

Saints – 1 Local Media – 0

is that Benson appears to have entirely bought into Payton’s approach. Benson owns the Fox affiliate in New Orleans (WVUE)—yet that doesn’t seem to give Channel 8 any leg up in the local media wars. The biggies for Saints info in New Orleans are still the Times-Picayune and WWL—and even they find that covering the team is like pushing on a rope.

Could this be an indication that Benson really is all-in when it comes to his commitment to a Super Bowl winner?

I thought that was the best article i’ve ever read on the Saints in my whole life! sure it was a little different, but that’s what you can do with a blog, no dead tree space to waste. i guess its deleted now? thats sort of lame, anyway, hopefully that doesn’t prevent you from trying different stuff here in the future.

about the media: ever think not that much is going on? i mean, as soon as deuce mccallister takes a crap on a car, the T.P. is right there, yknow.

People can click on it or not.

I think it’s really pretty silly for people to have been offended by the post yesterday— I find it hard to believe that in 2009 there are those so innocent that bad language hurts their feelings. You might dislike it—but offensive? Not quite.

The problem I had with yesterday’s post—and what today’s completely solves—is that your boy tried WAY too hard to be funny or whatever and sacrificed quality for the sake of his “style.” But cut out all the foul language and what did you have—a pretty piss-poor attempt at a post, in my opinion. Hap is like a mix between a bad standup comedian and a bad sportswriter—so we got a really unfunny, uninformative piece, and I just didn’t get his appeal.

Duh, people criticized the Saints for trading up to draft a punter (look at all the stuff following the draft), and of course the local media sucks (which is why we all ripped Jeff Duncan and his gay lover/stalker/doppelganger Caffeind a new one!). The unfunny bad writer not only failed to present new issues, but failed to rediscover existing issues in a meaningful way. Again, it had nothing to do with his overuse of foul language—although that’s definitely an indicator of a poor vocabulary—so even if he cleans up his potty mouth I don’t get what he contributes to the site. It’s definitely not “the best article I’ve ever read on the Saints in my whole life.” Sorry, just had to throw in my $0.02.

In regards to the question at hand—about the Saints’ secrecy with information—I don’t see it as a big negative. Football is definitely a zero-sum game, so information is at a premium; furthermore, it provides no real benefit in terms of success on the field for the fans to know all the ins and outs of their operations, so I can see why they want to keep things on the DL. It’s frustrating, sure, because we all really want to know what’s going on, but whatever, it’s a game—what really matters happens out on the field, and everything else is just us biding our time. I’m open to other perspectives on this issue, but I don’t feel that there’s any real “right” for us to know like in, say, the political arena.

i think one of the saints strong points is the locker room. what i mean is, i feel like payloo will often overlook numbers because of character, and i really like that about our team. granted i don’t know everyone’s bio, but to have a guy like brees in the locker room says a lot. the level of respect and devotion the guys have for our qb is awesome. when it comes to the media, i feel like it often causes angst and tension for some of the players. if this can be minimized by a little less access i’m fine with it. i know…‘iron sharpens iron’ but sometimes things need to be resolved without the media butting in.

as to the punter… i think it was silly to give up next years pick for him. i think he’d have been around later on.

anyway, i think dave did a great job reiterating ghost’s points and i definitely appreciate it.

about hap’s ghost. for goodness’ sake, this is NOT a political debate site – it’s a saints site, where we should be debating about the SAINTS!!! if i wanted to have a debate about today’s society i’d go to a cnn.com blog

It’s the trading next year’s pick for this year’s Punter Pick. What round did they give up next year?

I made the point in another post that giving up draft picks for veterans like Vilma and Shockey makes sense, if the player in question fills a void, has proven himself and is not coming off his second (or greater) injury. Giving up future picks to take advantage of a bird in the hand through the draft addresses the first criteria.

In Morstead’s case, it seemed like Payton wanted him, but was sure he wasn’t going to be there in the seventh round. If we assume the punter is a free agent position unworthy of draft choices, the argument holds that he wasted a “Mr. Darn-Near-Irrelevant” pick this year and a mid-round pick next year.

I don’t see how we can make that assumption. There are no throwaway positions in football. Ray Guy was a first round draft choice, and you guys remember how he could change a game for the Raiders with one booming kick that buried the other team.

The punter can have as much effect as a sack in pushing the offense backward. I don’t see the harm in moving up two rounds to take a player like Morstead who can have an immediate effect on the game.

Now, if they had panicked and traded a bunch of picks and players to move up higher in the first round, that would have ticked me off.

1 – I don’t think you can compare cities like Chicago, New York, Dallas, etc to New Orleans when it comes to the media’s relationship with their NFL team. They are different worlds. I think the reason the coverage is so much different is that the media atmosphere is so different. It is a small market with only one newspaper. There are no competing sports pages digging in the quest for a scoop like there are in other markets. A more appropriate comparison would be Jacksonville or Green Bay. I wonder how their fans feel the media interacts with their teams?

2 – I’m over the punter thing. If we had given up next years 4th rounder I would be really pissed. As it was, we basically swapped our 7th rounder and the 32nd pick in the 5th round of the 2010 draft for a 5 this year. I’m not thrilled with a punter, but I don’t think it was that big of a price.

Go here to read about it.

BACK TO PUNT … A STUDY OF 3,107 PUNTS FROM THE 2000, 2001, 2002 AND 2003 NFL SEASONS" (2004)
 
PREMISE: The premise of the punting book is that football is a team sport – and if this is true, then regarding punting plays, it is not the overall distance of a punt that is important, but the ‘net’ distance of the punt (both to the punting team and to the receiving team).

And if you think that’s something, read this:

INQUIRIES: In the NFL over the 2000 through 2003 four year period, teams allowed an average of over six miles of punt returns each year. The primary inquiry of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the primary punting approach in the NFL in achieving ‘net’ results. The study also determined what affect, if any, controllable punting factors (such as hangtime, distance and location of punts) have on ‘net’ punting success. A secondary inquiry was to determine whether there are any feasible alternative punting approaches that on the average yield similar, acceptable ‘net’ results in the NFL? Another secondary inquiry was to determine what type of punts have the most limiting effect on punt returns, and which have the least limiting effect? Another secondary inquiry was to determine punts to what areas of the field had the most limiting effect on punt returns, if any? Another secondary inquiry was to determine the types of punt returns that are most effective, and the blocking patterns associated with those returns? Another secondary inquiry was to determine the controllable punting factors if any, that affect on the success of "pooch" punts. Another secondary inquiry was to determine the mathematical odds and probability of certain outcomes of the punting game occurring in games.

Should we send a copy of this book to Payton and the special teams coaches? Or, was this book probably the source material that lead them to select Morstead?

From Sports Illustrated dot com

All that’s missing is HANG TIME.

He has the lowest ave. yards of any NFC punter, but there were less than 50 return yards for the Entire season! So distance isn’t as importantant as control, or teammates who run down and make plays.