by Jim W. Miller
Wait. Listen. Hear it? That squeaky, puckering sound you hear is the tightening sphincters of college basketball coaches around the land after last week’s revelations released by Yahoo Sports. One head coach has been fired, another is as good as done, dark clouds surround others and several assistant coaches have already walked the plank. The remainder, mostly innocent, are scrambling to make certain they know what their assistants are or are not doing.

It’s Feb. 3, 2019, and the New Orleans Saints are revelling in their 31-14 Super Bowl LIII victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars at Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium. Saints QB Drew Brees was the game’s MVP, throwing three touchdown passes, two to All-Pro Michael Thomas and one to TE Jimmy Graham, whom the Saints signed in March as a free agent. The defense held the Jags’ high-powered offense to its lowest scoring output of the season as Cameron Jordan and Ziggy Ansah, the former Lion signed as a free agent, sacked QB Blake Bortles six times. CB Malcolm Butler, another free agent pickup whom the Patriots benched in Super Bowl LII, intercepted Bortles twice.

If vengeance is a dish best served cold, the Saints’ next playoff game will be played in the right spot. The Accuweather forecast for Minneapolis and vicinity is for eight inches of snow late in the week followed by a high of zero and low of minus-14 on game day. If you’re thinking of attending, “put on two of everything,” as Jim Finks, the only man who ever headed up both franchises, would have advised. 

by Jim W. Miller
There was little question and little doubt the last time the Saints made it to the Super Bowl. Our local heroes went through the 2009 season like a buzz saw, winning their first 13 games and clinching the NFC top seed before the partridge flew into the pear tree. Oh, they had close wins at St. Louis, Washington and Atlanta, and, yes, they lost the last three meaningless games in a strategic move to rest the starters for the playoffs. But there was little doubt the Saints could and would win the Super Bowl. 

Jerry Jones’ first commissioner sabotage was Jim Finks

The NFL’s death spiral has turned inward. After the League has endured external disruptions over National Anthem protests, lower TV ratings, unhappy sponsors, lower attendance and concerns about whether the game is unsafe, Dallas owner Jerry Jones is leading an insurgency from within. Jones’ stated purpose is to stop a lucrative contract extension for Commissioner Roger Goodell that in reality would result in Goodell’s ouster.

If you watched the Saints’ game on Sunday, you were privy to a rare 3-minute segment that brought out the angels and the demons among NFL players, as well as a group kneel-down that, instead of a protest, revealed players' No. 1 fear.