HOW Bout them SAINT's (Sun: shop, retirement, teams)

[Aceter]

With the NFL being a passing league now, the box safety is going the way of the dinosouars and the way to go is to have two safeties that can play in space with coverage instincts. With that said, I don't see us going far if we don't replace Roman Harper with a safety who can cover. With teams running three and four wides these days he can't help us with his "in the box" limitations.

[atler8]

Can anyone here explain the overkill-like fascination & obsession with the Falcons?
You would not believe how often some Saints fans show up all year long on the Atlanta sports blogs, especially at the AJC.
Very little of the N.O. input there is of any value for the game of football or for the rivalry & very little of it is informative or well thought out. So I must ask whether those folks realize how foolish they come across & whether or not they have any semblance of a life beyond cruising & troll-posting?
I know such blog posting goes both ways but the outflow of input from N.O. is really beyond belief!
I've seen Atlanta troll posting at NOLA but if 2 or 3 of those posters were quiet, that flow would be pretty much reduced to nil.
How about some honest & objective responses please given that this post is not a put down or criticism of the Saints football franchise?

[Neworleansisprettygood]

Originally Posted by atler8

Can anyone here explain the overkill-like fascination & obsession with the Falcons?
You would not believe how often some Saints fans show up all year long on the Atlanta sports blogs, especially at the AJC.
Very little of the N.O. input there is of any value for the game of football or for the rivalry & very little of it is informative or well thought out. So I must ask whether those folks realize how foolish they come across & whether or not they have any semblance of a life beyond cruising & troll-posting?
I know such blog posting goes both ways but the outflow of input from N.O. is really beyond belief!
I've seen Atlanta troll posting at NOLA but if 2 or 3 of those posters were quiet, that flow would be pretty much reduced to nil.
How about some honest & objective responses please given that this post is not a put down or criticism of the Saints football franchise?

We've been in the same division forever, and there is a rivalry between the two cities.

[atler8]

I know that is the case & it's a pretty cool rivalry, imho but I'd like to see it kept on a more respectful level of discourse as far as the blogposting goes.
Is the rivalry with relatively closeby Dallas anything like the Saints/Falcons rivalry in intensity?

[annie_himself]

We don't have a rivalry with the Cowgirls.

[atler8]

Well, if you don't have a rivalry with "the Cowgirls", that just seems like a potential overlooked opportunity to me.
So, is the rivalry with the Falcons purely & simply THE ONE?
Who would be a good candidate as rival number 2? A divisional rival such as Tampa Bay?

[Neworleansisprettygood]

My hatred for the Falcons is deep and visceral, primal even. As far as the Bucs, they're just obnoxious. The Panthers, well they don't really matter.

There's a lot of residual hatred for the 49ers, but I don't really feel that. And in my opinion, if you don't hate the Cowboys, then you better live in Dallas, else you're doing it wrong.

[po-boy]

The Falcons started playing in 1966 and the Saints started playing in 1967. They were the first two franchises in the deep south, and the rivalry goes back almost to the creation of the two franchises. They were both in the NFC West (weird geography on that) from the time of the NFL-AFL merger until the creation of the NFC South in the early 2000's. They have played each other 88 times and the record is fairly even (47-41 Falcons). Both teams struggled for the first few decades of their existence and their rivalry was the biggest thing to give either team bragging rights for a lot of years.

The Saints just don't have that kind of history with any other team. The Panthers and Buccaneers share the conference, but the Panthers have only been around since 1995. The Bucs are older, but they were in a different conference until the formation of the NFC South. And it isn't like there is a ton of natural geographic rivalry with the cities of Charlotte or Tampa.

Houston and New Orleans have a lot of cultural ties, but the teams don't play often. The Saints have played the Cowboys more often, but the Cowboys have much more established rivalries with the other teams in the NFC East (especially the Redskins, but also the Eagles and the Giants to some degree).

So yeah, I think the Falcons are pretty much the only "real" rival of the Saints (on the other hand I think the Falcons have a slight rivalry w/ Charlotte, although that is certainly secondary to their rivalry w/ the Saints). Saints-Falcons is a fun rivalry, though I agree it would be nice if there wasn't quite so much bad blood between the two sets of fanbases. Both teams have been much improved since the mid-2000's which has injected some energy/attention to the rivalry.

[annie_himself]

The rivalry isn't fun. Nothing is fun in the Georgia tent unless we put up a burger on them.

[atler8]

po-boy
I enjoyed your multi-faceted response. And I'm glad to see that with your "bad blood" comment that you agree basically with what I said about the rivalry.
Now that the teams have both risen out of the cellar for several years running, there is more to the rivalry than ever before as you pointed out. Now it actually can have more of a bearing on the NFC divisional & conference situations & perhaps will continue to be recognized around the NFL as more than just a regional thing. Who knows, maybe it's in the cards for everyone to pick up on it much as we all did years ago about the Skins' vs. Cowboys rivalry.