Fleur-de-Links Saturday, January 22: Mississippians May Get Super Bowl XLIV Champ License Plates

by Hans Petersen on Jan 22, 2011 2:27 PM CST

Welcome to your NFL Conference Championship Weekend. I am Hans, and I'll be your Spirit Guide today.

News from those games dominates the flower of links today, but we also have the great news for Mississippi from the headline above, a Saints 2010 Photo Gallery, Ivory's agent speaking about his foot surgery, a story on the families in Mississippi that received aid from Sean Payton's foundation, and Pat Y's NFC South news.

From the Twitterverse, you can learn what Reggie Bush learned about Conference Championship Weekend, and follow a link to a forbes.com blog article about the lockout that Drew Brees shared.

Swallow the red pill and come along for the ride...

Twitter

TylerLorenzen Just watched it as well real funny! RT @HeathEvans: Going to see No Strings Attached....hope it's good!! #fb
ChaseDaniel I'm eating at the most unbelievable sushi restaurant! #NakedFish
reggie_bush Good morning peeps. What you guys doing today?
reggie_bush I'm spending my day traveling so I'll be looking for some updates from you guys on the game today
reggie_bush Wait both championship games are tomorrow? NFC and AFC?
reggie_bush Ok my bad they usually do one game Saturday and one game Sunday....even better I will get to watch both
HeathEvans Daddy day to take the girls & there friend to IHOP! I'm so fat right now!! http://yfrog.com/gyfavlj
alexbrown96 Lmao i am glad i am not the only one who had to do that RT @JimmyWilkerson: Went on it's a small world ride for the kids. Never again
drewbrees Learn about our CBA issues athttp://blogs.forbes.com/sportsmoney/2011/01/10/numbers-show-nfls-economic-realities-for-lockout-unwarranted

SaintsBeat

Feeding the children | starherald.net
Matthew Breazeale - Families in need receive aid from New Orleans Saints coach.

Mississippi House votes to create New Orleans Saints Super Bowl XLIV license plates | NOLA.com
Associated Press - Vote unanimous; bill moves to Senate.

Agent: Saints RB Ivory should be ready for training camp after foot surgery | neworleans.com
Brian Allee-Walsh

2010 Photos of the Year - Gallery | neworleanssaints.com
Some of the best photos taken by Saints Photographer Michael Hebert during the 2010 season.

NFC South News

Around the NFC South - NFC South Blog | ESPN.com
Pat Y. - It’s the first weekend in months without football in the NFC South and things are pretty quiet. Let’s take a look at the few headlines around the division.

Hitting the NFC South hot spots - NFC South Blog | ESPN.com
Pat Y. - We've got a weekend with no football in the NFC South. So let's reach into the mailbag and see what's on your minds.

Conference Championship Games

NFC championship game matchups | NOLA.com
Associated Press - Breaking down the Green Bay Packers vs. Chicago Bears.

One Man's NFL Picks for Conference Championships | neworleans.com
Emmanuel Pepis

6 Former LSU Tigers In NFL Playoffs - WWL - AM870 | FM105.3
LSU! LSU! LSU!

Mike McCarthy, Green Bay Packers have familiar look | NOLA.com
Jeff Duncan - He, Sean Payton only coaches standing from 2006 rookie class.

Final Word: NFC Championship - NFC North Blog | ESPN.com
Kevin Seifert - Five nuggets of knowledge about Sunday's Packers-Bears NFC Championship Game.

Epicenter of Humanity: Practice report III - NFC North Blog | ESPN.com
Kevin Seifert - Getting inside the Friday practice report.

Epicenter of Humanity: 'Cold' weather starts - NFC North Blog | ESPN.com
Kevin Seifert - We touched on just about every topic I wanted to hit in anticipation of Sunday's epic NFC Championship Game matchup.

AFC Championship injury report - AFC North Blog | ESPN.com
James Walker - Here is the final injury report for the New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers in Sunday's AFC Championship Game.

Walker's weekend mailbag: AFC title edition - AFC North Blog | ESPN.com
James Walker - Let's see what's in the mailbag during conference title weekend.

Jets call Steelers' Hines Ward 'dirty' - AFC North Blog | ESPN.com
James Walker - The New York Jets just couldn't help themselves.

Mark Sanchez more aware of the moment - AFC East Blog | ESPN.com
Tim Graham - Young players think they know. They truly don't, not until they go through it.

Video: Jets at Steelers 'Field Pass' - AFC East Blog | ESPN.com
ESPN analysts Tedy Bruschi, Mark Schlereth and John Clayton highlight the biggest matchups in Sunday night's AFC Championship Game.

A plan of attack against Sanchez, Big Ben - AFC East Blog | ESPN.com
Tim Graham summarizes Matt Williamson's analysis of the QBs conference championship games.

Stock Bulls Want to Trample the Jets - MarketBeat | WSJ.com
William Power - If the Jets lose, the market wins. And one finance professor says that might be more of a lock than it first appears.

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Comments

the forbes article linked to brees twitter is great.

There are only three things i can deduce from the Forbes article.

1. The NFL is using a worst case senario example I.e the Packers and applying that to the other teams.
2. The NFL has nothing to gain by releasing their expense reports.

On a different note, it is not the players fault if all the NFL owners are within a shared revenue system. Why should Dallas have to bail out Greenbay on a bad year. Likewise why should other teams be forced to keep these new stadiums from defaulting.

"I can eat oreos faster than him" Scott Fujita's take on Payton Manning SB44

by jeremysherwin on Jan 22, 2011 6:46 PM CST reply actions

hey Hans

You failed to tag “ratbastard owners” on this post for the Brees link. I did on mine.

"He didn't burn bridges here. He napalmed them."- ESPN exec, on Olbermann

by stujo4 on Jan 22, 2011 9:10 PM CST reply actions

Oh, I see

Happiness is a warm blanket.

by Hans Petersen on Jan 22, 2011 9:43 PM CST up reply actions

As much as I love the Saints and watching the NFL, the unfortunate fact is the owners are greedy bastards, pure and simple.

Contrary to popular belief, profits at a significant portion of corporations are actually doing very well. Wall Street and the banking industry we recently bailed out are recording record profits. But like the CEO’s of many of these mega-corporations, the NFL owners are using the opportunity and guise of the “economic climate” to lower salaries and benefits so they can become even more wealthy. The hypocracy has gotten so bad, it’s become obvious that most owners don’t even care what the fans think anymore. They assume, probably correctly, that we’ll just be led around like a bunch of sheep. They pretend players safety is of the utmost importance while they make expanding the season to eighteen games a major part of the negotiation hurdle. It there was a way to do it, they’d probably vote to outsource players from India who would work for peanuts, a temporary visa and a rent voucher.

To my knowledge, the Rooney’s are the only owners who have publicly sided with the players union on both the contract negotiations and the eighteen game schedule. That’s probably a pretty good example of why the Steelers are what they’ve been for the past forty years and most of the rest of the league is what they are.

Roger Goodell has shown me very little to indicate he is anything more than a puppet and mouthpiece for the owners who pay his salary and dictate his every thought. While it could be said that is his job, I would argue he doesn’t appear to have the long term vision or negotiation skills of a Pete Rozelle. It’s so obviously all about the money and little else at this point, I get revolted when I hear this twit talk about “respect for the tradition of the game”.

If there is a work stopage and a cancelled or partially cancelled season this year, I won’t swear that I’ll never watch another NFL game. But, it will leave a scar that will impact my “give a sh*t” factor for a long time. I think it’s safe to say I’ll never be as passionate about it again. While I’m not naive to the business aspects of running a team, I have a hard time dealing with undiluted greed regardless of it occurs on Wall Street or in the NFL. Why should I have more respect for the tradition of the game than the people who run it?

by Drew-Dat on Jan 22, 2011 9:44 PM CST reply actions 7 recs