Irony Isn’t Lost on This 8-8 Playoff Team : Saints: The season hasn’t been pretty, but Andersen’s kick gives them something to dance about.

In 1988, the New Orleans Saints were 10-6 and did not make the playoffs. In 1989, the Saints were 9-7 and did not make the playoffs. The Saints closed out 1990 Monday night with an 8-8 record and made the playoffs.

Is there a word for this?

“Ironic?” said New Orleans quarterback Steve Walsh.

That will do, especially when the Saints are involved. They beat the Rams, 20-17, on Morten Andersen’s field goal with two seconds to play, putting the Saints in the playoffs for the second time in three years and the second time in the team’s 24-year history.

Afterward, Walsh had a wry smile when he was asked about facing the Chicago Bears now that the Saints are on a roll.

“I don’t know how much of a roll,” Walsh said.

“We won by three points on the last play of the game.”

Once Andersen’s 24-yard kick cleared the crossbar and it was clear the Saints would enter the playoffs instead of the Cowboys, there was a wild celebration that began with the now-ritual dumping of water over his head.

Then team owner Tom Benson, a car dealer, careened onto the playing field of the Superdome and began displaying some kind of indistinguishable dance step, clutching an umbrella in one hand.

Benson tried to engage Coach Jim Mora in a dance duet, perhaps a tango, but was rebuffed. Mora seemed in a feisty mood and chose instead of take on an easier target--the media.

“A lot of people in this room gave up on us, buried us, our season was over, dead, gone, forget it, close the door, get the hearse,” Mora said, banging his fist on a table. “It didn’t happen.”

No, but it almost did. Since their inception in 1967, the Saints have been one of the most hapless franchises in the NFL. In 24 years, they have had winning records three times. There have been 10 head coaches and even seven uniform changes, the latest in 1986: “The socks feature a wide gold stripe on a black background.”

Mora follows a rich tradition of Saint head coaches that has always ended in firing, sometimes oddly. Bum Phillips was fired after 12 games in 1985 and replaced by his son, Wade Phillips.

But like father, like son. Wade, too, was fired at the end of the season.

Then there was the 12-3 season in 1987, which sort of raised everyone’s expectations. Said fullback Craig Heyward: “The fans were expecting us to win the Super Bowl the next year, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

Maybe that is why backup fullback Buford Jordan plopped on his back on the field and pumped his arms and legs in joy after the game. Yet Jordan seemed unclear how he had chosen this exact means of expression.

“I just knew I was happy and that was the thing that hit me and I just did it,” Jordan said.

The Saints were 2-5 at one point, but still made the playoffs, which Heyward explained as not so unusual after all.

“It’s a long season,” he said. “I always felt that anything could happen, and it did.”

Walsh underscored the irony of the evening by noting that his long pass to Eric Martin that helped eliminate the Cowboys was a play he took with him when Dallas traded him. It was added to the Saints’ offense only two weeks ago.

From there, Walsh noted the Bears’ great football tradition, but laughed when asked about the Saints’ tradition.

“I think you saw the Saints’ tradition tonight,” he said.

“Roller-coaster, ugly at times, real good at times, just about everything you can think of, most of it happening at the same time.”

Most of the time, it has been bad, but the Saints weren’t thinking about that too much Monday night. Many of the players dressed quickly and left the locker room by a side door. Maybe they knew Benson was still outside and his dance card wasn’t filled.