Home / New Orleans Saints / The Alignment of the Planets and Stars in the Heavens Above are Just Right for the New Orleans Saints and Their Fans to Break Any and All Curses Against Them This Year and Beyond!

The Alignment of the Planets and Stars in the Heavens Above are Just Right for the New Orleans Saints and Their Fans to Break Any and All Curses Against Them This Year and Beyond!

An Opinion Piece by this Author Based on Facts, Folklore and Some Speculation to Either be Taken to Heart, Taken with a Grain of Salt or Taken Any Way the Reader Desires to Take it (quite frankly)

It is generally well known that Voudou (i. e. “Voodoo”) has played a prominent role in New Orleans’ history especially as told through the many stories of renowned Voudou priestess/queen Marie Laveau and her annual St. John’s Eve (June 23) ceremonies where the local Voudous would all gather on the banks of the Mississippi River or Lake Pontchartrain or Bayou St. John, Marie Laveau would arrive on a barge of fire and land on the shore where she and the other Voudous would proceed to celebrate with dance, singing and food well into the wee hours of the night.

The New Orleans Saints football team has also found itself forever connected in some way, shape or form with the practice of New Orleans Voudou through the story which refuses to die of a curse having been magically placed on the team that calls the Louisiana Superdome home. This particular story originated from the fact that a section of the grounds cleared for the construction of the Superdome’s facilities was once home to the Girod Street Cemetery whose occupants were none too pleased with their uprooting and removal from their previously presumed “final” place of rest. One prominent person in New Orleans’ more recent history who was known to have been buried in this cemetery was one time Zulu Social Club King Joseph J. Smith.

The Saints have also suffered through other curses of sorts with ex-coaches the likes of Mike Ditka who traded away everything including the kitchen sink for his idea of a savior in the form of Ricky Williams (another curse of sorts in and of himself) and ex-players the likes of Aaron Brooks. Even in this day and age, the team is dealing with players on the roster who seem to have brought in curses of their own in terms of injury-laden careers which have haunted them in the much more recent past and some of which are still in question as to whether or not they are still affected by them or not. Here I am speaking of Jonathan Vilma (judging from last year’s performance, he’s beaten his injury demons), Jeremy Shockey (broken leg, hernia, you name it), Dan Morgan (multiple concussions), Marques Colston (knee, finger), Reggie Bush (knees) and I won’t go on because I’m presuming I’ve made my point already.

The whole nature of curses (Voudou or otherwise), whether true or make-believe, appears to rely on people believing in them for them to gain a true and powerful life of their own. Therefore, if the negative energy associated with any and all curses affecting the New Orleans Saints in a negative manner as it relates to their winning and/or losing ways over these last 42 years could be defeated by anything at all, it seems to me it would stand to reason that an immense amount of positive energy would certainly be able to get that job done. I have even gone so far as to do a little bit of research on the World Wide Web for “voodoo curse removal” and most of what I found had to do with destroying the “evil” nature of curses and spells with their exact opposite or “breaking voodoo curse spells” with “powerful reverse curse spells”. Of course if you were to order now through this on-line order form you could have the complete spell-breaking kit sent to your front door in a matter of only 4-7 business days for the one-time fee of only $99.99 complete with oils, candles and spell chants to get the job done once and for all!

After the Saints’ dreadful 2005 season of 3-13 in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, no one expected to see them go from “worst to first” quite the way they did that very next year when they finished with a record of 10-6 and won their playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles by the score of 27-24 only to lose the NFC Championship game to the Bears in Chicago in 2006! Fans and non-fans alike were so impressed with the turn-around of this team that many “experts” were predicting them to go all the way the next year in 2007. But it was not to be and the team seemed to just fall apart again with a record of 9-7 that year, followed by a record of 8-8 in 2008. So was it just sheer luck that got the Saints all the way to the NFC Championship game in 2006 or was it something much stronger than that which propelled them above all odds in that one magical season when all others before and since have fallen way short? I believe it was the positive thinking of all involved parties which came just two games short of completely smashing any and all curses on these Saints that year. It was the total combined positive thoughts and positive energies of the Saints’ fans, the Saints’ players and the Saints’ coaches that launched them above and beyond all that negativity of the past and lead them to a place they had never seen before in the team’s history!

While the 2007 and 2008 seasons may have proven to all the so-called “experts” around the league that 2006 was a fluke season for the Saints after all, Head Coach Sean Payton, General Manager Mickey Loomis and Owners Tom Benson and Rita Benson LeBlanc did not rest on their laurels by any means during the 2009 offseason. The re-signing of stand-out MLB Jonathan Vilma as a free agent was a crucial first step that the Saints executed flawlessly. They were also eventually able to re-sign other notable key contributors such as T Jon Stinchcomb, WR Devery Henderson, G Jahri Evans and WR Lance Moore as well as helpful and hopeful backups such as QB Joey Harrington, T Zach Strief and CB Leigh Torrence to the squad in order to at least not take a significant step backward in terms of the overall skill level of the team as a whole.

The return to health, reinstatement into the league and return to the Saints’ roster of former Pro-Bowl LB Dan Morgan may also wind up being a huge boost to this team’s chances of making a positive turn for the better this year as should the many new faces found through free agency during this year’s offseason. Players like TE Dan Campbell, CB Jabari Greer, FB Heath Evans, C Nick Leckey, DE Paul Spicer, TE Darnell Dinkins, S Darren Sharper, S Pierson Prioleau, DT Rod Coleman and LB Anthony Waters have, at the very least, added a tremendous amount of immediate depth the the overall roster of this squad as they begin to head into the training camp period of the offseason. The same can be said of the Saints’ 2009 draft class which includes draft picks CB Malcolm Jenkins, S Chip Vaughn, LB Stanley Arnoux and P Thomas Morstead along with signed undrafted rookie free agents WR Ken Harris, LB Jonathan Casillas, DE Jeremy Parnell, RB PJ Hill, T Sam McNaulty, CB Reggie Jones, QB Patrick Cowan, G Cedric Dockery, CB Danny Gorrer, C Alex Fletcher, RB Herb Donaldson, T Augustus Parrish and WR Chris Vaughn. This is not to even mention the other rookie players who were invited to participate in the Saints mini-camp this weekend at their training facility in Metairie.

In light of improving the team’s overall chances of making it to that crucial next step forward and in lieu of keeping under the team’s alloted salary cap numbers for this upcoming season, there were some expected as well as some more controversial releases that occurred during this year’s offseason up to this point for the Saints. Released players included WR David Patten, RB Deuce McAllister, FB Mike Karney, CB Mike McKenzie, S Kevin Kaesviharn, DT Brian Young and DT Hollis Thomas.

Perhaps the most significant change made on the defensive side of things for this year’s Saints was the acquisition of Gregg Williams as their new Defensive Coordinator to replace the heavily vanilla-laden style of former coordinator Gary Gibbs.  Head Coach Sean Payton even offered up some of his own income to attract Williams to the Saints which just goes to show how convinced Payton was that improvements on defense would be necessary to get this team over the hump and how determined he was the get the right man for the job in order to get that done in the here and now.  When Williams gave his speech and laid out his instructions to the newly signed defensive players and rookies at mini-camp this past weekend, it was summed up in a simple 5 word phrase.  “Knock ‘em the ____ out!”.

In my opinion at least, the Saints appear to have set themselves up very well (better in fact than I can ever remember before in their entire history) during this offseason to be able to put together a team that combines not only a roster of players but a group of coaches with shared scheme-types and philosophies in order to finally get them over that last hurdle and into the promised land of victory in the NFL. Provided we, as Saints fans, all do our part by providing our complete and total support by way of nothing but positive thoughts and energy toward this team and the injury bug stays away from the players themselves this year (although it is worth noting that the team’s 3^rd draft pick Stanley Arnoux is already out for the season with a torn Achilles tendon), I believe very strongly that not only will any and all curses and spells against this team be defeated but also a fruitful and winning season will be waiting for our beloved Saints in 2009/2010. I just can’t bring myself to make any cold, hard predictions for fear of jinxing the whole damn thing though, you know it?

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