A Little Love for Larry

Now that the initial wave of free agency has crested and things have finally settled down a bit, I wanted to take this moment to give credit where I believe credit is due.

So let's all give a round of applause for Saints beat reporter Larry Holder for his kick-ass coverage.

He killed it during last week's free agency frenzy. Holder opened things up by breaking news of the Chris Ivory tender offer and followed that by announcing Will Herring's release. He was first to report the Vilma/Smith restructure deals and also the first with their new contract figures. All the while, he's been on top of the Saints salary cap numbers. The man is on fire.

And it hasn't been just free agency. Since moving from CBSSports and joining the Times-Picayune/NOLA.com team in July 2012, he's stood out among the rest. The anonymous defensive player who said Steve Spagnuolo should be fired? That was Holder's work. The subsequent firing of Spagnuolo? You guessed it, Holder had it first.

I'm pretty sure in the almost five years of me running Da Chronic and covering the Saints I've never applauded any member of the sports media so publicly. But I think it's nice to finally have a local beat guy who's actually beating out the mainstream guys, like it should be.

So keep up the good work, Larry. And give yourself a pat on the old back. You deserve it.