Who Has Let These Saints Out of the Bag?

Maybe you remember the good old days when the New Orleans Saints were bad.

When any game against New Orleans was a big easy victory. When it was like shooting crawfish in a barrel. When the Super Bowl could always count on the Louisiana Superdome as a neutral site. When the only sacks the Saints went home with on Sundays were the brown paper hoods their mortified fans wore over their heads. When New Orleans and the Buffalo Bills and the St. Louis-Phoenix Cardinals stayed down there in the bedrock of the National Football League standings, where they belonged.

Now, well, saints preserve us, get a load of who’s in first place. By themselves. Ahead of the Rams. Ahead of the 49ers. Guess who has a better record than Washington and Denver, the 1988 Super Bowl foes. Guess who has a better record than all four of last season’s playoff semifinalists.

N’awlins, where y’at?

“We gotta be among da 6 best teams in da NFL ‘bout now,” quarterback and Cajun chef Bobby Hebert said after cooking up some blackened Ram, 14-10, Sunday at Anaheim Stadium.

Brown paper bags, begone.

“To tell you da honest truth,” the Louisiana-born Hebert said, in his best native drawl, “a lot of da guys on dis-heah team don’t hardly even know about dem bags. Hardly anybody in here over 30. Only a handful a-dese guys know ‘bout dat syndrome.”

Y’all wrong ‘bout dat, Bobby.

Defensive back Gene Atkins, for one, knows plenty about it, even though he has only been around a couple of years. “Fans wearin’ hats over their heads, bein’ ashamed, puttin’ their tails between their legs and runnin’ off for home, the fans never gave the Saints respect. But we don’t have to deal with that no more,” said Atkins, whose interception with 55 seconds remaining preserved the Saint victory. “We give people joy now. You go to New Orleans now, it’s like a Mardi Gras every day.

“It used to be no one down there even wanted to know a Saints football player. Now, being a Saint is something to be proud of. You don’t have to hide your head with your hand when you walk down the street,” Atkins said.

Coach Jim Mora said: “It was before my time, but all I know is that people down there have suffered through a lot. You’re talking about 20 years. Those people hung in there and hung in there and hung in there, waiting for a winner. It’s great to see their patience finally pay off.”

Strike up the Zydeco.

It’s party time, way down yonder. New Orleans has won 20 of its last 26 regular-season football games. The Saints do not intend to be trampled upon anymore by the Rams or anybody else. The Rams are the ones who have dropped 4 of their last 7, the ones who are fading as fast as Jim Everett fades back to throw another wild pass. New Orleans has the hot and spicy quarterback now. Maybe Everett should copy Hebert. Start calling himself “ Eh-ver. “

Only once have the Rams crossed the goal line in their last 9 quarters against the French Quarter guys. The Saint defense has stopped them colder than a Dixie beer. The leading Ram rusher Sunday gained 36 yards. The only way Everett and the offense could move the ball was to borrow some trick plays from Gadgets R Us, having receivers lateral to other receivers, having running backs lateral to other running backs. Solving the Saint defense took cunning and subterfuge. This one was The Big Difficult.

Defense took the winners the distance. The Rams never did recover from a third-quarter interception by linebacker Vaughan Johnson that he returned 34 yards, setting up the second Saint touchdown. When Everett tried to tackle him, the 235-pound Johnson jaked, faked, then gave him sort of a combination veronica and Judo chop that sent Everett sprawling on the ground.

“Let’s see--which one was that? The ‘Ole!’ or the hi-step?” Johnson asked later.

Looked sort of matador-like.

“I thought so, too,” Johnson said. “I was a fullback in high school, you know. Once you got it, you never forget it. I had me one of those flashbacks out there, carrying the football and heading for that end zone. No way could I let that quarterback stop me. I would have never heard the end of that, if Everett had tackled me.”

That’s right, Atkins agreed. “We were on his case just for almost lettin’ Everett get him. He couldn’t have faced us if he’d let some sorry quarterback bring him down.” He’d have had to wear a brown paper bag over his head, or something.

Except, it’s the rest of the National Football Conference’s West Division teams that are ashamed to show their faces these days. Everybody’s red-faced now. New Orleans is beating all of them.

It’s the blackened blue division.