How come the New Orleans Saints didn’t have a winning season until 1987 after they were founded in 1967?

21 comments
  1. Because the late 60s to mid 80s was an era of urban decay and “white flight” in cities like New Orleans. They couldn’t get players to go to Nola and probably couldn’t even fill up the dome if the team was in the playoffs.

  2. Because John Mecom was the owner. He had no clue about football. Tom Benson bought them in 1985, brought in competent leadership, and things finally turned around. Some of the training camp stories from the early years are hilarious.

  3. The original owner of the team, John W Mecom, Jr., never took the steps necessary to put together a winning team through the draft. Personally, I believe he was more concerned with profitability, instead of winning. He hired a number of good coaches, but he never hired a manager with NFL experience. The coaches got blamed for the losses, but the money kept rolling in, so Mecom had no reason to change. That all changed when Tom Benson bought the team and Mickey Loomis was hired.

  4. Because Tom refuse to pay folks, after a rookie contract if you were good, you got traded for more draft picks, we use to joke about all the ex saints in the probowl every year.

  5. Along with everything mentioned here about Mecom, this was also pre free agency NFL. Great teams would stash good players on their teams and never allow them to leave for other teams. It’s why they had more dynasties and repeat champions with less league parity back then. It also made it difficult for garbage teams to get better.

  6. Wasn’t this the year of a player strike? And the “winning” season was because all the players were 2nd & 3rd string players…?

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