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*This is just something I have been putting together for a week or so and is basically just a blog post. I’ve been a Saints fan since I was 7, in 1986. So the wounds run deep*

The Super Bowl Saints of 2009-2010 probably won’t go down in history as the most talented Saints team. Their best defensive player was Darren Sharper, who was a ballhawk and easily their best playmaker. But they had very few other big names playing on that side of the ball. We had small-fry heroes like Scott Shanle and Scott Fujita, and we still had Will Smith. But put them up against Demario Davis, Cameron Jordan, and Trey Hendrickson? Marshon Lattimore?

How about on the offense? Michael Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, against Marques Colston and Lance Moore? Tight end, I’d still take Shockey over Jared Cook, that’s for sure. Do I even need to make a comparison between Kamara and Bush/Thomas? But across the board, the blue chip names we have now should have made 2009 a faded memory.

Instead, we are always going to be looking at the last aught year in the 21st century as the pinnacle of Saints history. Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not. As a Saints historian, we have very little else to be proud of in our history comparatively to other franchises. Because we only exist in the Super Bowl era, we don’t have NFL Championships to look back on like the Detroit Lions or the Cleveland Browns do. Sure, they can’t say they ever won (or have been to) a Super Bowl, but they still have good history.

10 years ago, since the Super Bowl victory, I would imagine all of us as a fanbase collectively said “I can die now”. We never thought we would ever see that happen. But since it has, the team has not fallen apart or gone astray, or zeroed out into the basement dwellings of the NFL. Instead, since winning the Super Bowl, we have done this: Won the division 5 times (more than any other era of our history), gone to an NFC title game, and have sent more Pro Bowlers collectively than any other period. We have won 112 games to losing 64 in that stretch as well. I can think of 3 other teams off the top of my head who would probably mirror that: The Pittsburgh Steelers, the Green Bay Packers, and the New England Patriots. Two of those three teams have won multiple Super Bowls in the past 10 years.

But the Saints still just have the one. Here are the dark side of those numbers: 5 wins to 7 losses in the playoffs (including a 1-4 road record and an astonishing 3-loss home record), and *only* 1 NFC title game appearance. All 3 of those teams mentioned above have at least several Conference Title appearances, even if the Packers have just the 1 Super Bowl in that period as we do.

So what happened? Why has the Sean Payton-led Saints, with so much hardware potentially won in the last decade, fallen flat?

There are a slew of issues this team has had, including injuries, that could be the culprit. It certainly isn’t only one thing. But I think the biggest thing is identity.

This team in 2009 had no other Saints team to fear or revere. They made history. They were the 1st. Ever since then, the Saints have been chasing themselves. They wanted to repeat. 2-Dat. That was the new cheer.

And yet, something inside subsequent teams just couldn’t face themselves enough to want to make their own history. It was always going to fall at the feet of the 2009 Saints. The Champs.

I remember Junior Galette, another forgettable name in a litany of failed DE prospects, saying that his team was the most talented, more talented than the Champs. And the response from some of the players of that team? Simple: then win a Championship like we did. Galette’s failed career gave way to another promising player, Cam Jordan. He’s had moments of brilliance, and great games: but he is not living up to his own hype. He’s even bitten back at fans who have been disappointed.

Well, these are the guys who say they are “Super Bowl or Bust”, and the closest that they got January, 2019. Though remembered, and will go down in history, as the receiving end of the worst non-call of pass interference of all time, the game should be remembered as also a complete blown opportunity. After running the Rams out the door with a 13-3 lead and holding them to another punt, the team retaliated with a converted fake punt play that completely changed the make-up of the game. Instead of maybe going up 20-3 and blowing out the Rams, the Rams marched down the field, and made it 13-10. After that, the Saints were never in control of the game. In fact, they were outscored 23-10 after the 13-3 lead. That’s not a bad call away from a Super Bowl. That’s bad game management. Not only that, the Saints had the ball in OT. Brees had a chance to lead the team to another Super Bowl. Instead, he threw an interception (one of many to come in the following playoff appearances) and the Rams went down to score their winning field goal.

Throughout the last decade, Brees came up with the mantra “battle-tested”. He used it as a rallying cry for the team whenever they won a game by the skin of their teeth or if the other team blew it. In the era I call the “Battle-Tested”, post-Super Bowl, they may be tested, but they never finished the test. They never won the war.

Instead, they became casualties of themselves. We may never see another Super Bowl, we may never need to: but we certainly had at least 1 in our crosshairs. And the team misfired big time.