thats one of the reasons that the 49ers are still at the top of my list of teams i hate the most. who remembers jerry rice fumbling the ball on the goal line, that one wasnt a touchback (old school instant replay didnt help). hopefully one day, that f$cking team will move LA. eat sh!t and die, niners.

I consider myself a fairly classless football fan, and a firm believer in the NFL conspiracy to subtly ref the momentum away from “certain” teams. The Saints’ rich history of almost success failures is so overfull, that I rather prefer to look at the simply ugly moments in our recent history. Also, I just can’t think of any season-altering bad moments. Just regular-ass bad moments. Here are some that I’ve really enjoyed.

1)Kyle Turley’s “Most Flagrant Facemask Ever” penalty: His dedication to his profession of protecting the quarterback clearly lost us that game by negating a penalty against the Jets on the 4 yard line or so and adding a spare personal foul against the Saints…But he would have got a parade if I had anything to say about it. I only wish Robinson’s head would have remained in the helmet when Turley tossed it. Well, maybe not, but screw that guy anyway.

2)Carney’s non-PAT after the “River City Relay”: It didn’t matter if he made the point or not, but what an appropriate Saints ending to a game. Pull off one of the most impressive pro football plays ever, miss the free point to lose the game. Puts a smile on my face just thinking about it.

3) Joe Horn defensed by the back judge on a flea-flicker: Completely superfluous, but so very Saints style. A perfectly executed flea-flicker left Joe Horn alone in deep center field, with the ball dropping right into his hands. He could have moonwalked into the endzone had he caught it, but, alas! There was one defender left out there: a completely oblivious back judge. Horn ran right into him as the ball came down. Incomplete. Hilarious.

4) The fans’ airing of grievances in the endzone against the St. Louis Referees on MNF: Poor taste? Sure. Showing our butts on the national stage? Yeah. But as a conspiracy theorist, I side with the fans. The refs were playing the game for St. Louis(who wants to see the Greatest Show On Turf get their asses handed to them by the ‘Aints?), and they needed to be told; don’t come to our house, ruin a good game with your favoritism, and not expect to be drenched with Miller Lite. It was for their own good, and it was funny to mongrels like me.

…that facemask against Bush in the Vikings game was a travesty. The Saints did not play their best football, but the defense had essentially shut down Adrian Peterson, and was playing way above their heads all night, to have a possession STOLEN by such an obvious missed call raised my blood pressure right through the roof….it still gets me a bit red-faced thinking about it. I hate the Vikes to start with, to lose to them like that…GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR….

…I’m going to my happy place now, omm….ommmm….ohmmm……

;-)

…I agree, college review rules would keep bone-headed bad calls by refs from affecting the outcome of the game so drastically.

in the Dome is the Poydras end zone , and our season tix in the 70’ and 80’s. It was also near the corner where the Ref’s would enter/exit the field. Lets say it was a bad game with bad calls, which seemed like every home game during that period, well myself and others, would rain down half-drank beers/sodas etc. and nobody said a word…..

It was late 80’s or maybe early 90’s, just when all the hoopla over players beginning to celebrate before reaching the endzone on long TDs was getting big. Rice had beat our DBs big time on a long pass, and before he crossed the plane of the goal, he extended both arms and dropped the ball!!

On the 1991 Bears playoff game … HasDat, is correct. It was Robert Massey (in what would turn out to be his final game as a Saint) who was lined up offsides. It negated the block (by Renaldo Turnbull) and return for TD (by Vince Buck). Of course, the offense did’t do jack poop that entire game under Steve Walsh’s fearless command, so I can’t put a whole lot of blame on Massey. He was arguably the best pure cover CB the Saints had ever had, up until that point.

Great mention on the Joe Horn-back judge collision, FuSoYa. That one definitely makes the all-time lowlight reel.

Here’s a slew of bad memories, some our fault, some not:

1974 – Claude Humphrey standing over Archie Manning, beating his chest like Tarzan, on a rainy Tulane Stadium field. This was my first season attending Saints games and it’s an image that will be etched in my mind, probably the rest of my life. Manning didn’t move for several minutes and never returned to the game.

1976 – Full scale riot between the Saints and the Oilers, resulting from a cheap shot by Zeke Moore on WR Tinker Owens. The two were walking side-by-side folling a play, when Moore inexplicably reached through Owen’s facemask and two-finger poked him in the eyes, a la Moe Howard. Owens hit the ground and started shaking, as if he was having a seizure. Extremely disturbing sight, for anyone old enough to remember it. Both benches emptied and the game was delayed nearly a half hour. When the dust finally settled, three players were ejected for the remainer of the game including Archie Manning, who was in street clothes at the time. As Moore was being escorted from the field, a camera man walked over and kicked him square in the hindquarters. The crowd exploded in laughter and applause.

1978 – The Big Ben TD pass from Steve Bartkowski to Alfred Jenkins. The ball was tipped by a Falcons receiver, and two Saints defenders, before winding up in Jenkins’s hands. It was the first of two last minute losses to Atlanta that year, both games ending in a final score of 20-17.

1979 – Overtime in the season opener against the Falcons. First round draft pick Russell Erxleben races into the end zone in an attempt to retrieve a high snap, which had sailed over his head. He desperately heaves the ball back into the field of play, directly into the waiting arms of James Mayberry. TD Atlanta. Game over.

1979 – More Erxleben drama the following week against the Packers. He injures his groin on the opening kickoff and cannot continue. Being both the kicker and the punter at the time, this left the team in dire straits. Tony Galbreath wound up handling the placekicking duties that week, hitting on 2-of-3 FGs and 1-of-2 PATs. Wes Chandler serves as the substitute punter in the loss.

1980 – The offensive pass interference penalty on the final play of the game against the Dolphins. Manning was looking for Ike Harris in triple coverage in the corner of the end zone. He lofted the ball in that direction, there was a four body collision and the pass fell incomplete. In rained the penalty flags. First and goal at the one yard line, right? Think again. Pass interference on the offense. Penalty declined. Game over.

1980 – Later that same year, the MNF game against the Rams. Despite being a nationally televised game, the Superdome was less than half full. There was a banner hung from the terrace level that I’ll never forget: “AND BRETT THINKS HE HURTS” … a brilliant reference to George Brett’s Preparation H commercials. Fans were wearing the Aints bags. A paper airplane would land on the field every 2 or 3 minutes. Fans would cheer when one would appear headed for either huddle. According to the paper, Howard Cosell called it “the most apathetic display of sportsmanship” he had ever witnessed. Howard always had a way of his expressing himself.

1981 – The inadvertent whistle against the Vikings that negated Frank Warren’s INT return for a TD. There was no review system in place at the time, but even if there had been, they couldn’t have rightly overturned it. Just tough luck.

1982 – The strike-shortened regular season game against the Cowboys. Morten Andersen attempts to ice the game late with a FG. Instead, Dallas blocks it. Ron Fellows scoops up the ball and returns it for TD to pull within on point. Tyrone “Ty in the Sky” Young (a 6’6" WR) then leaps and bats down the PAT to preserve the lead. The Cowboys have no choice but to attempt an onside kick. They do so and recover. They then proceed to drive the length of the field, into the red zone. LB Whitney Paul makes a brilliant play on a Danny White pass in the end zone, yet decides to bring the INT out, rather than kneel it. He’s tackled at the 2 yard line. The Saints now need one first down to run out the clock and preserve the win. They’re stuffed for a one yard gain on the first play. They then attempt to catch Dallas off guard with a play action pass. Wayne Wilson misses his block and Stabler is slammed to the turf in the end zone by Anthony Dickerson. Instead of winning by one, the Saints lose by one.

1983 – Season finale against the Rams and yet another showcase of Erxleben ineptitude. In the first half, he dove flat on his face while “attempting” (and I use the word loosely) to tackle Henry Ellard on a punt return. With less than two minutes remaining, Bum Phillips elects to pin the Rams deep, instead of attempting a long (but makeable) Morten Andersen FG. True to form, Erxleben shanks the punt, Ferragamo drives them into FG range, Langsford connects and the Saints are home for the holidays, as usual.

1989 – Hebert’s mouth covered in blood after getting his front tooth knocked out just before half time in a game against the Bucs. He would go on to finish the game.

1989 – The Jerry Rice fumble non-call to which a couple of others have already alluded.

1990 – Season opener against the 49ers. This is the game when the Superdome gondola caught on fire during a pyrotechnics display at halftime. The Saints’ defense played brilliantly all game, shutting down Joe Montana’s high-powered West Coast attack. Unfortunately, this just so happened to be the year Mr. Finks decided to play hardball with Hebert. Fourcade could do absolutely nothing on offense and the Saints wound up losing, 13-12. To exacerbate the problem he helped create, Finks would soon turn to Dallas for a quick fix, sending a 1st, 2nd and a 3rd round pick to the Cowboys in exchange for QB Steve Walsh. Despite stiff competition by Ditka’s deal for the right to draft Ricky Williams, this remains the worst trade in team history, imo.

1993 – Hebert’s 3 INT playoff meltdown against the Eagles, in what proved to be his final game as a Saint. An inauspicious end to a very memorable tenure.

1993 – The crushing loss in Pittsburgh coming off of the bye week. The Saints were 5-0 going into the game. In Wade Wilson’s lone season as a starter, they would only win three more games all year. I still have this particular game on VHS tape. The complete dismantling remains difficult to watch.

1995 – Jim Mora’s profanity-laced tirade following the Panthers game. Just ugly and a real tough time to be a Saints fan, after all the early ’90s success we enjoyed under Mora.

1999 – The Ricky Williams trade and subsequent QB merry-go-round during Ditka’s last season. Also, the Hail Mary pass from Tim Couch to Kevin Johnson as time expired, to give the reincarnated Cleveland Browns their first victory.

2000 – Williams and Jeff Blake both being lost for the season in successive weeks. Who would have believed what the rest of the 2000 season had in store, at the time?

2001 – In the first game following the Sept 11th terrorist attacks, Albert Connell’s push off on the final play of the game at Buffalo. Good call by the refs and I don’t fault Connell for trying to do whatever it took to come down with it. Just another case of dumb luck.

2001 – The Turley (vs Jets) and beer bottle (vs Rams) incidents at the Superdome. Regardless of the circumstances leading up to them, both were classless, embarrassing and completely unnecessary displays of frustration.

2002 – The late season collapse, after Aaron Brooks suffered a partially torn rotator cuff, an injury that was not made public at the time.

2005 – Pretty much the entire season, save the opener at Carolina. I’ll never forget the jag-off group of LSU fans wearing half-purple & gold / half-teal & orange jerseys to the Saints-Dolphins game at Tiger Stadium. I guess that was their cute little way of paying homage to their beloved Nick Saban. Here’s a novel idea: why don’t you try supporting your home state team during their darkest hour, you pompous bush league douche bags?

2006 – The Soldier Field debacle. Why you don’t even attempt to establish the run on a cold, soaking wet turf remains the greatest Saints mystery of the Payton era.

2007 – The double end around on 4th-and-1 against the Bucs. Bush’s errant pitch to Devery Henderson sealed the defeat. Nothing like having creativity jump up and bite you on the ass.

2008 – Drew Brees’s heave into double coverage on the first play of the Falcons game. Not sure what the hell he was thinking there. This probably doesn’t even make the list, had it not been so recent and out of character. Also, the inability to convert 4th-and-1 to close out the Broncos game and Roman Harper getting beat like a drum by Devin Hester in the OT loss at Chicago.

the 1977 loss to the previously winless Bucs and the 1979 MNF collapse against the Raiders.