KENNER – Brett Maxie was an important player during the first successful era of the New Orleans Saints.
Tracy Porter was an important player during the most successful Saints era.
Steve Gleason was the central figure in perhaps the only play in Saints history that can rival Porter’s two signature plays as the most memorable in the team’s lore – and in retirement became one of the most beloved residents of New Orleans.
And Ed Daniels chronicled the stories of all three men – as well as other good and also bad and ugly moments – as one of the most prominent reporters covering the franchise for decades.
Maxie and Porter were inducted into the Saints Hall of Fame and Gleason and Daniels were awarded prestigious honors on Friday at Chateau Country Club. All four will be recognized Sunday at halftime of the Saints game against the Carolina Panthers in the Caesars Superdome.
WATCH: Saints Hall of Fame 2025 Induction Luncheon
The Saints Hall of Fame weekend annually honors some of the best players in the franchise’s history and celebrates other special people and moments. This group provided one of the most distinctive of the 36 induction luncheons.
Maxie was a defensive back at Texas Southern who was overlooked by every team in the NFL during the 1985 draft.
But the Saints signed him as a free agent and he launched a nine-season career in New Orleans under head coach Bum Phillips and defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, Bum’s son.
“I don’t know how they found me, but they did,” Maxie said. “They must have seen this guy running sideline to sideline making tackles.”
Maxie was just getting his feet wet when new team owner Tom Benson fired Bum Phillips and his staff, and new general manager Jim Finks hired Jim Mora as head coach.
That’s when everything changed.
Maxie noted the historic date of November 29, 1987, when the Saints clinched the first winning record in franchise history. A fourth-quarter goal-goal line stand preserved 20-16 victory over the Steelers in Pittsburgh.
That team went on to earn the franchise’s first playoff berth and the Saints would earn three more under Mora during Maxie’s tenure.
Maxie described Mora, defensive coordinator Steve Sidwell and defensive backfield coaches Dom Capers and Mora’s son JL as “great teachers.”
“They taught me to be successful,” Maxie said.
The elder Mora appeared in a video tribute to Maxie and said he called the former safety when he learned in the spring that Maxie would be joining him as a Hall of Famer.
“You deserve it,” Mora said, citing Maxie being “a team guy, a hard worker who was smart” and had an exemplary attitude.
Mora said those attributes along with Maxie’s talent made him “the perfect guy to coach.”
Porter, a native of Port Allen, starred at Port Allen High School before going on to Indiana University.
“I was a basketball guy growing up, until I stopped growing vertically,” Porter said. “I had to pivot.”
The Saints were lucky that he did.
Porter said being drafted by the Saints in the second round of the 2008 draft and playing four seasons in New Orleans was “a dream come true.”
“Not many players get to play for their hometown team,” he added.
Much as Maxie’s third season featured the first winning record and playoff appearance for the Saints, Porter’s second season featured the Saints’ first (and only) Super Bowl championship – and the young cornerback played a lead role in the championship run.
New Orleans and Minnesota were tied at 28 late in the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship Game in the Superdome. The Vikings had just crept within the outer edge of field-goal range at the Saints 38-yard line with 19 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Vikings quarterback Brett Favre scrambled to his right and threw back across his body, looking for wide receiver Sydney Rice, but Porter stepped in front and intercepted, sending the game into overtime. A few minutes later a Garrett Hartley field goal was sending New Orleans to the Super Bowl for the first time.
Two weeks later the Saints faced Indianapolis and Peyton Manning in Miami. The Saints led 24-17 late in the fourth quarter and Manning was trying to drive his team to a tying touchdown as he faced a third and 5 from the New Orleans 31.
Porter stepped in front of Reggie Wayne, snared Manning’s pass and sprinted 74 yards for a touchdown. That gave the Saints a 14-point cushion and the championship was secured.
In the video tribute to Porter, the cornerback’s former head coach, Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton, told him the two will “walk together forever” because of their shared Super Bowl championship.
“If you told me this was going to happen I never would have believed it,” Porter said.
A little more than three years before Porter’s heroics Gleason produced the most emotional play in Saints history.
It was September 25, 2006 and the Saints were playing the Atlanta Falcons on the occasion of the reopening of the Superdome 13 months after Hurricane Katrina.
New Orleans forced a punt on the first possession of the game, Gleason burst through an opening on the line of scrimmage, blocked the punt and Curtis Deloatch fell on the ball in the Girod Street end zone. The Saints were on their way to a 23-3 victory and the moment resonated around the world that New Orleans was on its way back.
Gleason, one of the best special teams players in Saints history, was diagnosed with ALS in 2011 and has since dedicated himself to his nonprofit “Team Gleason,” which has helped raise more than $100 million to help those living with ALS and to work toward finding a cure.
The Saints Hall of Fame Board of Directors chose to honor Gleason with the new Saints Hall of Fame Courage Award, which will be awarded not annually but whenever appropriate.
Much of the video tribute to Gleason featured clips from him receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYS in July 2024.
Gleason’s wife Michelle formally accepted the Saints Hall of Fame Award, but team owner Gayle Benson personally delivered it to Gleason, who thanked her for her support over the years.
“Leadership isn’t about titles or trophies,” Gleason said in reference to Benson, whom he called “The Godmother of the Crescent City. “It’s about how you take care of people.”
Benson’s caring of people was also noted in reference to Daniels, the long-time WGNO-TV Sports Director, who died in August 2024 after being stricken while covering the Saints training camp in California. The owner arranged for Daniels to be flown home for his final few days.
Daniels’ widow Robin accepted the Joe Gemelli Fleur De Lis Award for outstanding contributions to the organization on her husband’s behalf “with deep gratitude and a full heart.”
Benson cited Daniels’ signature fairness and honesty in covering the team in good times and bad, a sentiment echoed by Payton and Saints senior vice president of communications Greg Bensel during the video tribute to Daniels.
Robin Daniels noted that her husband’s passion meant he didn’t just cover the team, but “lived alongside the team” as he chronicled “victories and heartaches.”
She added that he reveled in his job enabling him to “represent New Orleans with integrity.”
Finally she was thankful for the award that gave Daniels “a place in the story” of the Saints.
The Saints Hall of Fame exists to tell the story of the franchise, and the story of the Class of 2025 provides a mosaic chapter.