Application period ends today for vacant Ellender football position
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Houma native Paul Allemand has been a Saints fan for 40 years.
The 51-year-old Cajun roots for the Black and Gold hard, touting that he’s watched every game from start-to-finish for the past 20-plus seasons since shifting from a 7-on, 7-off work schedule to 5-on, 2-off.
“It’s as diehard as diehard can get,” Allemand said with a laugh. “My Sundays in the fall are spoken for – permanently. And I think everyone around me already knows it, too, so they don’t even ask.”
But for all his love and support, Allemand thinks his beloved Saints are in some trouble in the future.
It’s an opinion that a lot of local fans share as the team heads toward the offseason after a second-straight losing season.
Houma-Thibodaux-area Saints fans who were questioned this week seem worried about New Orleans’ prospects, because the team has a lot of future uncertainty at several key positions.
Allemand said the Black and Gold are about to embark on a full-scale rebuilding project – one that others think will take time and will sometimes be painful to see.
“Drew is older, and the team is out of money,” Allemand said. “The window is closed. There’s no way to do this without it taking a few years. And a few years in the NFL unfortunately means a couple more tough seasons for our Saints.”
The points Allemand touched on – Brees’s age and the Saints’ salary cap structure – were unanimous concerns among 12 fans surveyed randomly throughout the Houma-Thibodaux area.
Thibodaux native John Bruce said he thinks that because Brees will be 37 at the time the 2016 season begins, the team needs to come to the realization that his days of being Superman are over.
The quarterback was solid statistically in 2015, but was hampered by lingering injuries for a second-straight season.
“I think they have a big decision to make,” Bruce said. “He’s due $30 million. That’s so much money. They need to get him to take less. If he doesn’t, they need to look somewhere else.”
Bayou Black native Reis Adams won’t go that far, but admitted that the contract is a big problem. Both he and Cut Off native Susanne Reid said that they wish the Saints would have made it a point to find playing time for 2015 rookie draftee Garrett Grayson – especially in situations where Brees was playing hurt.
“Drew tore a ligament in his foot and still played in two meaningless games,” Adams said. “Now you tell me: How in the world did that not fall on Garrett Grayson to play in those games? You have to cut the umbilical cord and let him loose.”
“Play the kid. Find out what he can do,” Reid added. “I think they would be better off to try and prepare for the future – especially if you cannot win the bigger games today in the present.”
The Sean Payton situation is another that has fans in a tizzy.
Thibodaux native Bob Guidroz is one of many local New Orleans fans who don’t think Payton will be the coach of the team beyond the season.
He said he thinks the team’s unstable ownership situation is a turn-off, and it’s something Payton doesn’t want to be tied to long-term.
“He had a good time, but I think he sees green grass in the other pasture,” Guidroz said.
Galliano man Timmy Ross agreed and said he thinks Payton will be heading to either of two places – one job which is currently open and another which isn’t yet, but might be soon.
“How could he say no to being with the Colts?” Ross said. “They have Andrew Luck. Who wouldn’t want to coach Andrew Luck for the next decade? I think he goes there or he goes to Dallas. I think his heart has been in Dallas for a long time, but the timing just never was able to be quite right to make it work.”
But while Ross and Guidroz have Payton going elsewhere, Houma native Adam Angeloz said he doesn’t think Payton will be coaching anywhere else.
“His heart is here. I don’t think he is going to go,” Angeloz said. “I think in the last month of the season, he has looked more committed than he has looked in a very long time.”
But no matter how pessimistic some may seemed to have been about the team, just about everyone agreed that the team was going to someday resume its position as a winner.
Allemand said the team is rebuilding, but he thinks there are plenty pieces in place who will be a part of a future winner.
He said New Orleans’ 2015 draft class was a good one, and he can’t wait to see those players grow up in Black and Gold.
Guidroz and Ross agreed, and said they both think the team can win a Super Bowl in the next decade, assuming, of course that the team plays its cards right in the next few offseasons.
They all can’t wait to see how it shakes out – no matter which side of the fence that they’re on.
“That’s our team, and we love our team,” Ross said. “Win, lose or draw, that’s who we are all-in for.”
“We might holler about what they do on the field, but we love them,” Guidroz said. “They’ll get back to winning. We know it. We just wish it would be today and not tomorrow, but hey, that just gives us something to look forward to. I think we all expect the future to be bright.” •
