NFL Team by Team Guide: New Orleans Saints
The Saints franchise was established in 1966 and played its first season in the NFL in 1967. The team took its name based upon the large Catholic population that is prevalent in the city of New Orleans. For most of their first two decades in existence, the Saints were not very good. It was not until 1987 that the team had a winning season and made the NFL playoffs.
Since 2000, the Saints have been very competitive with just seven losing seasons and only one season with a record worse than 7-9. During that span, New Orleans has won seven divisions titles and the franchise’s only Super Bowl (XLIV in 2009).
Because of the Saints more recent success, they are a popular draw for national broadcasts like Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, and Thursday Night Football. Regional Saints’ games can be seen on FOX Sports or CBS. Fans can watch nearly the complete Saints schedule via a live streaming service such as HULU, fuboTV, CBS All Access, or Amazon Prime Video.
Home of the Saints
The Saints originally played at Tulane Stadium remaining there until 1974. They moved into their current home, the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, in 1975. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina damaged much of the Gulf Coast and the Superdome was used as a temporary shelter. The Saints played home games in a variety of stadiums including Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. The Mercedes-Benz Superdome seats 73,208 fans.
Championship History
The Saints didn’t make the NFL playoffs for the first 20 seasons of their existence. After first making the postseason in 1987, the Saints have now made the playoffs 13 times. New Orleans has won eight division titles - two in the NFC West (1991, 2000) and six in the NFC South (2006, 2009, 2011, 2017, 2018, and 2019).
The Saints have won just one conference title (2009) which is the same year they claimed the franchise’s only Super Bowl (XLIV).
Best of the Saints
There are only three players that played their NFL careers mainly in New Orleans that are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The first is LB Rickey Jackson, who was a second-round draft pick in 1981. Jackson was a five-time second-team All-Pro and was selected to six Pro Bowls. He played 13 years for the Saints and collected 128 career sacks. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2010.
Willie Roaf was the eighth overall pick of the 1993 NFL draft. He played nine seasons for the Saints. During his NFL career, he would earn 11 trips to the Pro Bowl and was a six-time first-team All-Pro. Roaf was selected to both the 1990s and 2000s NFL All-Decade teams. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2012.
The other Saint in the Hall of Fame is kicker Morten Andersen, who played a total of 25 seasons in the NFL13 of which were in New Orleans. He holds the NFL record for games played with 382. Andersen ranks second in NFL history in field goals (565) and second in points scored (2,544). He earned seven trips to the Pro Bowl and five first-team All-Pro honors.