Saints

The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The

Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football
Conference (NFC) South division. The team was founded by John W. Mecom Jr., David Dixon, and
the city of New Orleans on November 1, 1966.[6][7][8] The Saints began play in Tulane Stadium in 1967
where they remained until the 1974 NFL season, when they moved to the new Louisiana
Superdome (now the Mercedes-Benz Superdome).[9][10]
The name "Saints" is an allusion to November 1 being All Saints' Day in the Catholic faith. New
Orleans has a large Catholic population, and the spiritual "When the Saints Go Marching In" is
strongly associated with New Orleans and is often sung by fans at games. The team's primary colors
are old gold and black; their logo is a simplified fleur-de-lis.
For most of their first 20 years, the Saints were barely competitive, only getting to .500 wins twice.
In 1987, they finished 12–3 – their first-ever winning season – and qualified for the NFL playoffs for
the first time in franchise history, but lost to the Minnesota Vikings 44–10. The next season
in 1988 ended with a 10–6 record, but no playoff berth. Following the 2000 regular season, the
Saints defeated the defending Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams 31–28 to notch their first-
ever playoff win.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast region. The
Superdome was used as an emergency, temporary shelter for displaced residents. The stadium
suffered damage from the hurricane (notably from flooding and part of the roof being torn off as well
as internal damage from lack of available facilities). The Saints were forced to play their first
scheduled home game against the New York Giants at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New
Jersey (the Giants' home stadium); other home games were rescheduled at the Alamodome in San
Antonio, Texas or Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. During the season, it was rumored that
Saints' owner Tom Benson might deem the Superdome unusable and seek to legally void his
contract and relocate the team to San Antonio, where he had business interests. Ultimately,
however, the Superdome was repaired and renovated in time for the 2006 season at an estimated
cost of US$185 million. The New Orleans Saints' first post-Katrina home game was an emotionally
charged Monday Night Football game versus their division rival, the Atlanta Falcons. The Saints,
under rookie head coach Sean Payton and new quarterback Drew Brees, defeated the Falcons 23–
3, and went on to notch the second playoff win in franchise history.
The 2009 season was a historic one for the Saints. Winning a franchise-record 13 games, they
qualified for Super Bowl XLIV and defeated the AFC champion Indianapolis Colts 31–17. To date, it
is the only Super Bowl championship that they have won, and as it is the only Super Bowl the Saints
have appeared in, they join the New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the only three NFL
teams to win their lone Super Bowl appearance. Since their 2009 Super Bowl run, the Saints have
struggled with postseason success, with a 4-6 record in 10 postseason games in the 2010s including
brutal losses to the improbable Minneapolis Miracle and the controversial NOLA No-Call in back-to-
back years.
In 53 seasons (through 2019), the Saints' record was 384–450–5 (.461) overall, 375–438–5 in the
regular season and 9–12 in the playoffs.