For Saints, ’06 playoff hangover proved to be no Brees
Maybe New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton should conduct another mock burial, the way he did in the spring of 2007.
On the other hand, maybe he shouldn’t.
Because the last one certainly didn’t have the intended effect, which, in effect, was to let the players know that it’s time to stop dwelling on perhaps the best all-encompassing season in team history. They gathered outside a building at team quarters and jokingly laid to rest replicas of division-championship rings, banners, awards and the like from their magical 2006 campaign.
Dead and buried.
New day.
Well, stop dwelling they did in 2007 — and quickly.
But in all the wrong ways and for all the wrong reasons.
Four games into the 2007 season, the team that had reached the 2006 NFC Championship Game and helped restore welcome pride to a city still healing from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina stood 0-4 and had lost reliable running back Deuce McAllister to a torn knee ligament.
usatoday.com
6/9/08
