I Hope the Saints Lose their Last Four Games

Before you jump me and say: "What? You want your own team to tank?" let me clarify: No, I don't want the New Orleans Saints to purposely tank and lose their last four games. But I sure hope they lose all four of them and here's why:

Firstly, I am tired of the Saints being mediocre. I am dead tired of the 7-9 record that they've had in three of the past four years and that they're likely to have again this year. Because mediocrity is where the irrelevant lives. Be great or be awful, don't be mediocre. Mediocre teams get nothing, absolutely nothing. A middle of the pack draft pick, no playoffs berth, no championship and maybe even more importantly, no shake up in the system, which is something that usually happens when a team is truly awful. And this last point is the very reason I'd love to see the Saints lose their last four games: I want to see changes.

Have you noticed? Sean Payton is quickly becoming Les Miles: the great memories are mostly in the past, while the recent years have been nothing to brag about. Let me correct that statement: the recent years have been terrible. We all know what happened to Miles at LSU: he got fired. The problem in NOLA is that there is not even a hint of warmth on Payton's seat.

Tom Benson, bless his heart, has seemingly lost all control of his franchises (Saints and Pelicans). While Payton, Loomis and the Saints wallow in mediocrity, Benson is nowhere to be found and these two guys seem to have free reins to spend Benson's money unwisely in terrible free agent contracts and other mishaps. So, I want the Saints to finish 5-11, which would be the worst mark in the Sean Payton era. Maybe that would wake the old man up from his slumber. Maybe he would ask for more accountability. Maybe he would (finally) fire Mickey Loomis, who has been resting on his laurels since 2009. Maybe he would let Sean Payton know that his NFL head coaching job is not guaranteed forever and that if his team continues to be an abject disaster every other Sunday, his comfortable NFL gig could be taken away from him.

I want the Saints to lose their last four games because I'm tired of the damn status quo. I want the Saints to lose their last four games because I'm tired of rooting for a team with one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL spending all these January months watching the playoffs on TV. I want the Saints to lose their last four games because the Saints are slowly becoming the "Aints" again and we all need to remember that although the memories will last forever, the Super Bowl XLIV win happened nearly seven years ago, I want the Saints to lose their last four games because I'm hoping that it could be a wake-up call. Maybe I'm dreaming.