I was watching the end of that series about the AFL and they were showing clips from the Chiefs-Vikings Super Bowl in old Tulane Stadium and it occurred to me: how much different would the Saints have been (better or worse) playing outside instead of in the Dome. The early Saints teams were awful, to be sure, and probably couldn't have won if they had been spotted points. But what about having the Dome Patrol playing outside in wet or muddy conditions. Would that have slowed down the 49ers any in the late 80s and early 90s? But they did play in Candlestick Park right on the bay. :geauxtige:geauxtige:geauxtige
Nothing could have slowed the Niner juggernaut in those days. Eddie D and his big bucks could easily beat any team back then. The Lombardi trophy in '89 cost him an alleged $33M in team losses that year. The Niners second and sometimes third stringers were good enough to be starters on most other NFL teams. Free agents fell all over themselves to play for the Niners big buck bandwagon back then. I still chuckle at the knowledge that an Eddie that I despised as a Louisiana resident and voter brought down Eddie D and the Niner empire. Is dude still in the Big House? :thumb:
You want "what ifs", consider this one: New Orleans got a franchise in exchange for Russell Long's support in keeping the NFL out of anti-trust trouble with Congress. That's pretty well-known. What's less known is that even back in '66, plans for an NFL-AFL merger were underway, and it was part of the plan that 3 NFL franchises would have to be moved into the AFL (AFC) to balance the conferences. The original plan would have sent the Browns, Colts (neither was an original NFL franchise; they joined when the league absorbed the AAFC in 1950.) and the Saints. Long, however, objected, and the Steelers agreed to move to the AFC instead. So what would the Saints history be like had we gone to the AFC? We would not have had the 49ers or the Steelers to contend with in the Mora days, and Mora's Saints dominated the AFC, winning something like 17 straight against AFC teams at one point.
