Elmer "Lloyd" Matherne
February 15, 2010
Attempt to raise rates denied by insurance dept.
February 18, 2010It’s a pretty awkward time to be a sports fan.
Football season is finished and it’s still about 20 degrees too cold to sit outdoors and watch baseball for this warm-blooded Cajun.
Basketball is in high gear, but the season is sort of in that boring stage where everyone is just coasting to the NBA Playoffs, the NCAA Tournament or even the high school playoffs.
To make things even worse, Mardi Gras just ended. How lame is that?
So while we have a few minutes in the midst of all this boringness we like to call “February after Mardi Gras is finished,” let’s spend a few minutes talking about something everyone is always ready to hear about – the Saints – or rather, the 2009 Super Bowl Champs.
The defending champions have now officially moved from the hunters to the hunted in the NFL – a title that has become very difficult to hold because of the NFL’s growing parity and difficult salary cap.
Since 2000, four defending Super Bowl champions missed the playoffs entirely the year following their championship and only two teams who made the playoffs as defenders of the title actually won a playoff game once they got there.
This year, the trend held firm, as the Pittsburgh Steelers were unsuccessful in their title defense and watched the entire postseason from the comforts of their own homes.
So you can see how big a challenge it is to extend success in the NFL.
And for the Saints it will be no different – but it can be done.
The biggest challenge the team will have to overcome is free agency.
The Black and Gold have expiring contracts for Pierre Thomas, Mike Bell, Lance Moore, Jahri Evans, Scott Fujita, Darren Sharper, Roman Harper and Garrett Hartley – all of whom played a significant role in the team’s Super Bowl run.
Sharper, Fujita and Hartley are unrestricted free agents, meaning it’s a free-for-all for their services and they are free to sign with whomever they wish.
Everyone else is a restricted free agent, which means they are free to negotiate with anyone they wish, but the Saints will have an opportunity to match any offer given to the players.
So it will be interesting to see if Saints owner Tom Benson, who sometimes is a little bit tight in the checkbook, will open up his wallet and do his part to take care of the players who put a ring on his finger this year.
It will also be interesting to see if teams will swoop in and make exceedingly high offers to the Saints’ free agents hoping the team will match the offer and put itself in a financial pickle in the future.
That scenario might sound far-fetched, but with the NFL having a season without a salary cap in 2010, big-market spenders like Jerry Jones in Dallas or Daniel Snyder in Washington might have a few tricks up their sleeves to try and cherry pick the top talent from the smaller market teams (like the Saints).
If Jones was willing to pay $1 billion out of pocket to build his own football stadium, what makes you think he won’t send inflated contract offers to Saints players, knowing that if they leave the team, the Cowboys might have a better shot to overtake the Saints in 2010?
The NFL is a dirty business and the Saints have to be careful as to who to throw their money toward in the offseason.
The biggest free agent on the table, according to my eyes, is Sharper.
It’s difficult to imagine how the Saints would have fared this season without their superstar safety, who picked off nine passes in 2009, while laying down countless jaw-dropping hits.
Sharper expressed his desire to return to the team following the Super Bowl, but locking him up will absolutely be a must – especially when you consider the team gave up 434 yards of total offense to the lowly Rams in a game he missed due to injury.
Believe it or not, I think the next biggest fish to fry is resigning Hartley.
The Saints kicker recovered from his early-season suspension to become colder than ice down the stretch of the season.
Forget the kick to win the NFC Championship game; did you see those three field goals in the Super Bowl?
They were all dead in the center of the uprights.
Keeping the kicker will be a huge asset to the team, because with an already high-powered offense, having a steady kicker makes the team capable of scoring points on nearly every drive.
So there are plenty of challenges ahead and many hurdles to climb, but I’m sure complaining about the challenges of being a Super Bowl champion is a problem Saints fans are willing to have.
