James Joseph Whitney Sr.
September 15, 2009
Genevieve D. Carlos
September 17, 2009
Most books written about the New Orleans Saints focus on the positive things that have happened over the team’s last 42 years – playoff teams from the 1980s through 2000 and the 2006 return to the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.
When Vacherie native George Becnel decided to write his Saints book, he adopted a different angle.
“When the Saints Came Marching In: What the New Orleans NFL Franchise Did Wrong (And Sometimes Right) in Its Expansion Years” captures the team’s first five years and how poor front office decisions cost New Orleans wins through the late ’80s.
“There hasn’t been any book that’s really focused on any particular aspect of the Saints,” Becnel said. “The Saints have been around long enough now that I think you can look back on them with a bit of a historical perspective.
“There are still a lot of people around who can remember the early days,” he added. “It was a chance to relive the past for them and provide a look at history for newer fans. I just thought the first five years were interesting because it was almost a textbook case of how not to build a franchise.”
New franchises, he explained, enter the league with a five-year outlook.
“What is interesting is that, despite the fact (the Saints management was) an example of how not to build a franchise, they still managed to tie or set the record for most wins by an expansion team in its first three years,” Becnel said. “What it really showed was that they weren’t building for the future.”
Instead, the author theorizes, management stacked the team for short-term successes. As players left the game or were traded, the front office failed to bring in top caliber replacements.
While writing the book, Becnel said he went through countless newspaper clippings and interviewed local draft analyst Mike Detillier, former assistant coach Ed Khayat and former defensive tackle Dave Rowe among others.
Included in the book are some of the famed NFL stars the Saints could have had on their roster, had they made the proper personnel decisions.
Hall-of-Famers Bubba Smith, Larry Csonka and Fran Tarkenton, for example, could have each worn the black and gold.
Instead, the Saints were left with Gary Cuozzo and Les Kelley, who helped set a tone for futility that ended up haunting the team for many years, Becnel wrote.
“Some people questioned Tom Fears being the choice for head coach,” he said. “If it’s 1966 or 1967 and you are looking for a top assistant coach around the league to lead a new franchise, you would look at somebody like a Tom Fears who was under Vince Lombardi. To get a Vince Lombardi assistant then was like getting a Bill Belichick assistant now.
“He was a good choice but he really didn’t have control over the franchise,” Becnel explained. “The front office was poorly run.”
Becnel’s book discusses some of the Saints hits – Rowe, Danny Abramowicz, Doug Atkins and Archie Manning – and misses – trading away draft picks including the rights to the Packers’ Jimmy Taylor and the Colts’ Cuozzo, who lost his starting job to Billy Kilmer. The Colts then used the trade to draft Hall of Famer Smith at defensive end.
“They felt they needed to have a local drawing card, a big name star,” Becnel said. “In that case, they gave up a number one pick to get Jimmy Taylor and they only got one year out of him. When you are a new team in the league, you don’t have to go after that star player because just being in the league is going to bring people to the games. Back in those days, even though the team wasn’t good, people would have gone just because they were in the league. At least they had a team.
“People would have gone to see Johnny Unitas or O.J. Simpson play,” he added.
Becnel also offers an interesting perspective on how Tom Dempsey’s NFL record 63-yard field goal actually set the team back even further.
Had Dempsey not made the kick, the Saints would have gone winless and likely would have fired coach J.D. Roberts after the season.
Instead, Roberts was given a two-year contract extension following the publicity from the kick. During his tenure, the Saints won only three games.
“If Dempsey doesn’t make that kick, that could change the whole fortune of the franchise,” Becnel said. “I believe if they would have lost to Detroit, they wouldn’t have won any games at all under J.D. Roberts. They would have made a coaching change and who knows what could have happened.”
The Saints book is Becnel’s fifth. He has published the histories of Lutcher, St. James and E.D. White football and a work on the life of Norman “Big Boy” Swanner.
He currently has a few more projects on tap, but nothing near completion.
“You get better each time you do it,” Becnel said. “I’ve been able to hone my craft and do something I have always wanted to try.”
Vacherie native George Becnel is the author of the newest book about the New Orleans Saints. “When the Saints Came Marching In” focuses on the blunders the team’s front office made during the inaugural years and what could have been had they not made the mistakes. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF
