Jim Haslett (1 Viewer)

he was a better head coach than marvin lewis.

that's a compliment, right?!
 
Truth be told, when Brooks won the job in 2001, I don't think most fans were looking for Blake or saying that he got screwed over.

Literally no one......unless they were a family member or close friend of Jeff Blake........would have been clamoring for Brooks to go back to the bench after the show he put on in the WC game against the Rams and winning the first playoff game ever for the Saints. He looked like he was on his way to being the next big thing. And it's not even like it all just magically came together for him in just that one game.......he'd already beaten the Rams on the road in his first start.....plus, he had some highlight reel moments in a road win against SF.

I've seen some on this forum who swear up and down they wanted Blake re-inserted into the starting lineup heading into 2001..........and, simply put, they are either revisionist history liars (angry at the multiple 8-8 seasons that would follow and how Brooks never really did parlay that quick front run into consistent greatness) or were simply being contrarians back then.
 
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Yea. I'm not entirely sure what exactly happened with Randy Mueller as I was pretty young when he was our GM, I remember those days rather fondly though. I couldn't even say I have a genuinely bad memory of Haslett, but I feel like the team was perennially on the cusp with him. Obviously the 2005 season was particularly bad, and the River City Relay in 2004 I believe was one of the highest highs followed by one of the lowest lows so I could use that as my worst memory and essentially what I remember of his tenure summed up in the end of one game. The best memory is probably "Hakim drops the ball". He always seemed to prefer athletes to football players which didn't usually pan out long term. Knowing that he's a defensive kind I can see why he felt that way, but that doesn't always translate to production and isn't the best way to build a pro team. I actually remember feeling like he got kind of hard done by being fired after 05 but in retrospect firing him and hiring Payton was obviously one of the best things that ever happened to the franchise.

There were definitely plenty of rumors of the players running amok under him though, as well as his own escapades with a cheerleader if I'm not mistaken. More of a players' coach if you will but without the X's and O's talent to have us be anything more than consistently average. I seem to remember an article from when Payton first took over about him getting rid of all the Lazy Boys in the locker room and being this hardnosed business first football coach, which is kind of funny as I think now Payton definitely has a reputation a man that's fun to play for.

Yeah. I remember the Lazy Boy recliners for the offensive lineman. Can’t remember his name but he was cut wasn’t he ? First year of Payton coaching ?
 
Literally no one......unless they were a family member or close friend of Jeff Blake........would have been clamoring for Brooks to go back to the bench after the show he put on in the WC game against the Rams and winning the first playoff game ever for the Saints. He looked like he was on his way to being the next big thing. And it's not even like it all just magically came together for him in just that one game.......he'd already beaten the Rams on the road in his first start.....plus, he had some highlight reel moments in a road win against SF.

I've seen some on this forum who swear up and down they wanted Blake re-inserted into the starting lineup heading into 2001..........and, simply put, they are either revisionist history liars (angry at the multiple 8-8 seasons that would follow and how Brooks never really did parlay that quick front run into consistent greatness) or were simply being contrarians back then.
I'm convinced that if you were to introduce Heath Shuler, Danny Wuerffel & Aaron Brooks during halftime at a Saints game, Brooks will be the only one that is greeted with Boos. Very sad and sick case.
 
Mine , was when he invited me and my son and his friend inside the new practice facility as guest of the Saints! There was nowhere to sit, you were on side lines with the players, that was the fastest 2 hours i ever saw pass! At the end we had a chance to get autographs, that is my most prized Saints possessionDSCN1381.JPG.
 
There were definitely plenty of rumors of the players running amok under him though, as well as his own escapades with a cheerleader if I'm not mistaken. More of a players' coach if you will but without the X's and O's talent to have us be anything more than consistently average.
This plus Haslett's senseless devotion to Aaron Brooks, who apparently was one of the players running amok on the team, led to his downfall.
 
Mine , was when he invited me and my son and his friend inside the new practice facility as guest of the Saints! There was nowhere to sit, you were on side lines with the players, that was the fastest 2 hours i ever saw pass! At the end we had a chance to get autographs, that is my most prized Saints possessionDSCN1381.JPG.

That looks like the legit who dat sign I had hanging in my room in the 80’s.
 
Aaron Brooks, who apparently was one of the players running amok on the team,

Why don't you elaborate on this?

I'm not saying you aren't being truthful, but perhaps you should clarify what you mean by "running amok".

We've heard all sorts of critiques of Brooks over the years............but this is a new one (to me, anyway).

Typically that description is consistent with someone who is breaking team rules, causing trouble, etc.
 

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Why don't you elaborate on this?

I'm not saying you aren't being truthful, but perhaps you should clarify what you mean by "running amok".

We've heard all sorts of critiques of Brooks over the years............but this is a new one (to me, anyway).

Typically that description is consistent with someone who is breaking team rules, causing trouble, etc.

Yeah I've never heard about Brooks being a bad teammate or locker room cancer. It's amazing that even after all these years the perception of Brooks is overwhelmingly negative. Obviously the smiling after interceptions and goofy mistakes he made were irritating at the time but I let that go years ago.

When I think about Brooks I think about that playoff win and how much fun those offenses were to watch at times. Those Haslett teams made the Saints relevant again.
 
I did not have to live and die without ever having seen a Saints playoff victory, as a number of my family and friends did, thanks to Haz.
 
I did not have to live and die without ever having seen a Saints playoff victory, as a number of my family and friends did, thanks to Haz.

So true. And let's not forget that the team was a train wreck when he took over. Mora phoned it in there at the end and then we had three years of being Ditka'd.

'96 - 3-13
'97 - 6-10
'98 - 6-10
'99 - 3-13
 
In 2005, after summer camps for kids ended and before school began, I brought my sons to training camp. It was certain to rain, but I figured we would show up, be told the Saints were moving indoors and we would just end up eating doughnuts somewhere. Only about 20 people were there, so he let us all go in the training facility. (Maybe StRonaldo was there the same day)
 
I will never understand all the hate for Aaron Brooks, guy was decent and gave us our first play off win. Did he do silly things in games? Yes, but every QB does.
 

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