Homegrown Saints...aka 'there's something in the water'

by GRlZZ on Mar 20, 2010 11:00 PM CDT

I've seen this done before, but I'm gonna try it a little different. Louisiana and the rest of the southern states have been known to produce great athletes of all types and all sports. Many legends of football and todays players were born and/or raised in Louisiana (ie. Terry Bradshaw , Peyton Manning , Marshall Faulk,...so on and so on...). And it got me thinkin', "How many southern or Louisiana players were on our Super Bowl Champion Saints?" So I started compiling numbers and etc. and come to find out...it's quite staggering how right I really was.

The following may offend some "yankees", but it is not meant to...just showing that there really is something in the water in the south. Although much argued what the "south" really is, I'm going to use these states just for this research: Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas*, and Tennessee*. (the last 2 did not contibute any players to the Saints Super Bowl team). I'm going to compare these 11 states to the 39 other states in the US. After that I will go on to the argument of why the athlete's from Louisiana are for some reason...just a little better than everyone else :-)

First off the south: here's a chart of what each state in 'the south' contributed to the SB team.

tx	fl	la	sc	ga	nc	va	al	ms
9	6	5	4	3	3	2	2	1

That's 35 players for 11 states. Meanwhile, all the other states (all 39 of them...more than 3.5 times the amount) looks as follows:

ca	pa	ny	oh	nj	ok	mi	io	az
8	4	3	3	2	2	2	2	2

in	md	wi	ut	ks	il	or	ne	all others
2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0

That's a total of 38 players from 39 states. Pretty big margine I'd say.

Now onto Louisiana...if you didn't know...Texas, California, New york has quite a bit bigger of a population than Louisiana. But as I'll show you that we produce(d) more Super Bowl 'quality' players (at least on the New Orleans Saints...which might be a little more biased towards LA players...but that's another story). The following chart is the state populations (as of July 2008) and the number under that is 1 player for ### people there are in that state.

	tx	fl	la	sc	ga	nc	va	al	ms
state pop	24,326,973	18,328,338	4,410,795	4,479,800	9,685,743	9,222,414	7,769,089	4,627,850	2,938,618
1 player for	2,702,997	3,054,723	882,159	1,119,950	3,228,581	3,074,138	3,884,545	2,313,925	2,938,618

	ca	pa	ny	oh	nj	ok	mi	iowa	az
state pop	36,756,664	12,448,279	19,490,297	11,485,910	8,682,661	3,642,360	10,003,422	3,002,555	6,500,180
1 player for	4,594,583	3,112,070	6,496,766	3,828,637	4,341,331	1,821,180	5,001,711	1,501,278	3,250,090

	in	md	wi	ut	ks	il	or	ne	all others
state pop	6,376,792	5,633,597	5,627,967	2,736,424	2,802,134	12,901,563	3,790,060	1,783,432
1 player for	3,188,396	5,633,597	5,627,967	2,736,424	2,802,134	12,901,563	3,790,060	1,783,432

This show's that although Louisiana has one of the 'smaller' state populations, it's number one in player per population in the US. If it were as populated as Texas (24,326,97) ,in theory, we would have about 27 players on the SB team from La. It's even more if we had Cali's amount of people (36,756,664) which would, again in theory, give us 41 football players from Louisiana winning a superbowl this year. That's 41 Tracy Porter's! 41 Devery Henderson's! 41 Randall Gay's! etc...etc...I think that is pretty amazing how many great players this great state produces. Can anyone tell I'm bored at work?

via static.uslnn.com

oh look..another Louisiana boy...oh wait...it's just Peyton... (just kidding...we still love Peyton!)

Bonus: I thought this link was funny..mainly the picture on the page.
They still have him wearing a saints shirt.

This FanPost was written by a reader and member of Canal Street Chronicles. It does not necessarily reflect the views of CSC and its staff or editors.

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Comments

that's actually pretty neat

good stats job.

by Andrew Tessier on Mar 20, 2010 11:39 PM CDT reply actions

yeah i just had this lil thought...I'm glad it came out the way I wanted too...

that would have sucked to do all that math and come to find we only had like 1 guy from La. haha…well i think i woulda stopped a lil sooner though

by GRlZZ on Mar 21, 2010 1:18 AM CDT up reply actions

Not surprised

We’re awesome. Good research.

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by Dave Cariello on Mar 21, 2010 12:09 AM CDT reply actions 1 recs

“If it were as populated as Texas (24,326,97) ,in theory, we would have about 27 players on the SB team from La. It’s even more if we had Cali’s amount of people (36,756,664) which would, again in theory, give us 41 football players from Louisiana winning a superbowl this year.”

I’m glad you threw “in theory” in there, because I really don’t think we would have even made the playoffs, if we had 27-41 players from Louisiana (nor from most singly-specified states) on the roster. That’s not a knock on Louisiana athletes, just that there’s not enough upper tier athletic programs in this state (nor in many others) to compete with non-pigeonholed scouting. That would likely be the case, no matter how many residents that particular state had. What you’d wind up with is a whole bunch of Josh Reeds and Randall Gays. Drew Brees caliber QBs would come along once every 86 years, instead of 43 … and even then there’s be no guarantee some other team wouldn’t select him.

Just out of curiosity, when you say “produced” are you referring to the states in which Saints players were born, or the state in which they attended college? Big difference. For example, I’m sure there are at least three or four dozen NFL players born in the states of Maine, New Hamphire, Vermont, Alaska and Hawaii combined. There’s probably not more than a dozen who actually attended college in those states, however. That goes for Louisiana, as well and both ways. JaMarcus Russell is from Alabama. Nnamdi Asomugha is from Lafayette. We all know which one we’d RATHER claim as “one of us”, but let’s aim for a little consistency here.

"I was not on the boat in question." -Darren Sharper

by coldpizza on Mar 21, 2010 4:23 AM CDT reply actions

i used "born" and not sure if they were raised here too..

and yeah it’s not like any of the players that are from La. are “5 star quality” but rather just good football players. Half the players that are on the saints from louisiana don’t start or barely played at all in reality. and also this is just a small scale from one team…one season…

by GRlZZ on Mar 21, 2010 4:28 AM CDT up reply actions

and trust me..

I argued with myself while creating this post lol

by GRlZZ on Mar 21, 2010 4:33 AM CDT up reply actions

I’m drawing a blank on the 5th from Louisiana. Porter, Gay, Henderson, Fassitt …

"I was not on the boat in question." -Darren Sharper

by coldpizza on Mar 21, 2010 5:30 AM CDT up reply actions

and some random guy..

..jk marlon favorite

by GRlZZ on Mar 21, 2010 5:34 AM CDT up reply actions

Ah. I should have known that. Did he finish the season on IR? If so, it must not have been anything too serious, as I see he’s signed with Buffalo since.

"I was not on the boat in question." -Darren Sharper

by coldpizza on Mar 21, 2010 5:40 AM CDT up reply actions

Hey Marshall faulks name comes up as a link to a player page..

can we ipck him up as a fa??

by GRlZZ on Mar 21, 2010 4:34 AM CDT reply actions

Depends on whether or not he submitted his retirement paperwork. Which I’m sure he has, being that it would hold up his five-year waiting period for induction into the HOF. Why? Are you devising a secret SB repeat masterplan involving a 37 year old RB? Maybe SB Nation recognized Faulk as a Louisiana native and thought the link would befit the subject matter of your post.

"I was not on the boat in question." -Darren Sharper

by coldpizza on Mar 21, 2010 5:26 AM CDT up reply actions

possibly...but not probably...

by GRlZZ on Mar 21, 2010 5:28 AM CDT up reply actions

I was BSing. There’s no way it’s going to pick up on that. I wonder why Peyton’s didn’t draw a link.

"I was not on the boat in question." -Darren Sharper

by coldpizza on Mar 21, 2010 5:32 AM CDT up reply actions

You can kill that link, you know. Edit, highlight and use the “break link” button. It’s a little chain snapped in two.

"I was not on the boat in question." -Darren Sharper

by coldpizza on Mar 21, 2010 5:33 AM CDT up reply actions

yeah i was trying to get peyton up there..

and i like faulks link haha

by GRlZZ on Mar 21, 2010 5:34 AM CDT up reply actions

Thanks Grizz

its post like yours that inform and educate some of us that learned how to type on the old Underwood.

OldFartFan

by OldFartFan on Mar 21, 2010 5:47 AM CDT reply actions

This sounds weird but

Its because Louisiana and Texas have different rules on how long high school football training camps last. Here and in Texas, the rules say that teams can practice through the summer.

My guess is that extra training pays off in the end. I think California is the only other state that can do that, but we all know how those sissy boys are over there.

by vanondubs on Mar 21, 2010 1:35 PM CDT reply actions

this is also a la team

there are probably a bigger percentage of local players on each team. so it might be more telling to look at other teams that have won SBs.

Yes, Sean Payton is the new Zorro. He leads wild adventures, quaffs the finest wines, embarrasses his enemies and leaves a extravagant calling card in his wake. Try as you might to stop him, but he's always one sip ahead.

by DrewBreesManCrush on Mar 21, 2010 3:00 PM CDT reply actions