I've never been a Saints fan (or really a huge NFL fan for that matter, I just love football), mainly because the front office never made any moves that indicated they were serious about becoming a success. Tom Benson has been, and always will be, a used-car salesman with a used-car salesman mentality toward business. What gives me hope about the Saints going forward is that his granddaughter is essentially running things now, and she seems to have a million times the business sense the old man does. If it were entirely up to him, I'm convinced he would gut the roster in the offseason when it comes time for contract renegotiations.
Thanks for all the replies. I guess one way to look at it, is to look at what people wear, the flags they put outside, etc. Another is to just take an opinion poll to see which team more people care about. The two methods probably do produce slightly different results since they count the bandwagon fans differently. Ohio doesn't seem too different, except for having 2 NFL teams. Cincinnati is definitely turning out to be the weak link in the state for Ohio State. While still having a decent following, OSU never had the same grasp there as it had for most of the rest of the state and the Cincinnati Bearcats seem to slowly be exploiting that as a local college competitor. The Bengels are the big team in the area still though along with high school football. In other college towns, you do seem some resentment of the Buckeyes (the 6 Ohio MAC schools), but generally speaking the vast majority are Buckeyes fans too and a lot will go to games in scarlet and grey. I'd wager most of them have more dedicated Buckeye fans than Brown or Bengel fans. Most in Cleveland itself would be bigger supporters of the Browns first, but the Buckeyes are still really important there (got to have another team to route for when you are relying on the Browns). Most the rest of the state outside of the Toledo area (northwest Ohio which has a lot of Michigan fans) seems to me to be dominated by Ohio State first although most that care will route for an NFL team too. As an aside, Columbus has traditionally split loyalties between the Browns and Bengels with I think more Brown fans. When the Browns left though, a small, but noticeable minority of Steeler fans seemed to appear. I don't get the logic in that move, but it seemed to happen. Conclusion: College football is so much better. :wink: Good luck to both the Tigers and Saints. :grin:
Amen to that, nice info about football in Ohio. :thumb: You obviously haven't been paying attention to any Super Bowl coverage. Apparently Peyton could just show up with just him and 3 receivers and play 4 on 11 and still beat the Saints 78-0, according to the pundits. :dis:
I was explaining this to Donalyn yesterday: We pull for the Saints to win, but we bleed purple and gold, and its really that simple.
I'd have to say that LSU is much bigger in Louisiana on a regular basis. It's not that easy to compare because LSU has other sports. Don't get me wrong, there are a ton of Saints fans too and they have a GREAT fan base. Many are Saints/LSU fans. I believe the Saints have the most losses of any team since joining the NFL, yet they are in the top 10 for attendance since they have entered the league. That is extremely impressive. So it ain't just bandwagon fans. Saints have real fans. Yes, there are a ton of bandwagons right now too, but that's natural. Winning is fun and people like feeling like they are a part of something exciting. I know someone said there are a few LSU fans in New Orleans. As a person that lives in New Orleans, I can tell you that there are a ton of LSU fans in New Orleans. And they are passionate. Remember, LSU held the record for the highest attended basketball game ever for a long time with over 68,000 people in the Dome. It was broken after a concentrated effort to break it, but it's still impressive and I believe it's still more than any NBA game ever as well. They also have the 3rd highest attended game ever at the Dome with 66,000 thousand and another in the top 10 with over 60+. And they had the baseball attendance record in the Dome as well for a long time with over 27,000 fans (2nd now I think). And that's just basketball and baseball. So that gives you an idea of how many LSU fans are in New Orleans. Hell, I remember the hospitality industry people giving interviews talking about how they were so surprised that LSU fans were booking up all the hotels in New Orleans for the BCS games even though a lot of them were from around the New Orleans area. There are also a bunch in many other places. If you're asking what is bigger: the Saints in the Super Bowl or LSU in a National Championship? It's the Saints in the Super Bowl. Because the Saints going to the Super Bowl was always like a joke around here. I'm a Saints fan, and we used to joke about every year being the year, but not being very realistic. With LSU, we were just waiting for the right coach because we really felt we had absolutely everything that the best programs had (especially the much talked about fan base). We just felt that we needed that coach that could get us to the top. There was amazing excitement for both of LSU's recent BCS NC games. But with the Saints going to the big one, I've noticed there are people wearing black and gold that I didn't think could identify a football if you asked them to. Right now it almost seems like the Saints have the most fans of any team ever with this great run. But I think it's a lot of "for the moment" fans that would drop off pretty quick if the Saints were just average. We are passionate for both teams, but LSU fans seem to take things a lot more serious. People are like in deep depression when they lose a big game. With the Saints, people get upset, but they seem to get over it a lot quicker. Most likely do to a history of losing so much. I would say they're both pretty damn big in Louisiana. But the Saints haven't given us much of anything to celebrate until recently and the shock of it all has exploded into a huge celebration. That scene walking down the ramps and crossing over to Canal St. after the NFC Championship was something to see.
nothing against what you said, but quite frankly i get tired of hearing this. i will admit that i have never been a die-hard saints fan like i am a die-hard tigers fan, but there are many reasons for it. there are many reasons why the saints have a lot of johnny-come-latelys. the saints have always been atrocious (save maybe four or five seasons.) i have NO earthly idea why they have so many "die-hard" fans. a vast majority of the saints' history has terrible front-office business practice to blame. for all the good benson did/does for the city, the guy is mostly slime (trying to relocate, new stadium, selling the franchise short, etc.) so why am i and everyone else in the state all of a sudden a saints fan? well, because with sean payton and drew brees benson has FINALLY given the saints an opportunity to compete and win. it seems like benson would always sell the team short to save a buck, and quite honestly i don't see how anyone could enjoy that. it was like the saints were always bringing knives to battle when everyone else was bringing uzis. don't preach to me about state loyalty, because i love the idea of the saints. louisiana is a poor state, new orleans a poor city, and the fact that they have been able to keep an NFL franchise for this long is simply amazing. i just always felt it really hard to be emotionally attached to something as half-assed as the saints have been in their history. having said that, how can anyone accuse anyone of being a johnny-come-lately with the saints?! i'm sure there are lots of hypocrites spouting off about that! now, don't get me wrong, i have NEVER bashed the saints or pulled against them -- far from it! it makes my heart feel really, really good seeing them do well! admittedly i'm not even a fan of the NFL, so that makes it even harder for me to consider myself a fan of the saints, but i have to say that the last three or four seasons have been really, really exciting to watch! when i was in the hospital i actually missed not being able to watch them play! it was just something that i was brought up on -- you watched/listened to/attended LSU games on saturday nights and you watched the saints on sundays. i watched the saints play because i enjoyed watching everyone (my family) get excited while deep inside i was snickering at them. and the saints stand for a lot! a lot of blue-collar people in louisiana can connect with the saints a lot easier than they can with LSU. where i am from, LSU has almost an elitist type status (college, money, etc) where the saints have a hard-nosed, blue-collar edge to them -- not everyone can connect with college athletics and maybe some of these people feel some sort of resentment toward it, i don't know. i'm not saying that people in morgan city resent LSU (haha, FAR from it,) but i personally know a few people who hold grudges against the school/program... so anyway i'm not bashing the saints, because i am so damn proud of this team. payton and brees have been SO much more than football to this area that i don't see how anyone from the state wouldn't be pulling for them, band-wagoner be damned. WHO DAT?! Saintslogo
It don't know if I'd really call it a crock. When the Saints returned to the Dome after Katrina, that place was sold out and rocking like never before. In fact, they sold out every seat for each game before the season even began with season tickets. The year before, we were 3-13 and were awful. Add in the fact that nobody knew much about new coach Sean Payton, nobody knew if Brees would really pan out and the city was still missing a large amount of its population. People were really excited about Reggie Bush, but he was an unproven rookie as well. Those people that attended were looking for the Saints games as a getaway from all the BS that was going on. It wasn't like they had come back to support a proven winner. And they've sold every seat for four years now. I'm sick of hearing about Katrina as well, but looking at the Saints' record over the years and their attendance figures, the Saints fans have been pretty damn connected to the team even with all the losing.
