Les Leonard's New Orleans Saints fan blog

     Did everyone recover from a wild weekend without Saints football? Big Daddy barely felt the Saints’ third bye week blow by thanks to Bobby Hebert honoring the Buddy “D” promise: to wear a dress if the Saints ever made it to the Super Bowl. Big Daddy wonders if seeing all those guys in dresses compelled the U.S. military to ponder abolishing their “don’t ask— don’t tell policy.”

     Where were you when you heard Jim Henderson’s immortal words: “Pigs have flown, Hell has frozen over, the Saints are on their way to the Super Bowl?” Big Daddy didn’t hear Henderson’s call live, but he caught it the first time on the Big 870 WWL Radio, listening to the Saints postgame show. Nothing ever sounded better.

Continue reading "Big Daddy Gets You Ready For the Black ’n’ Gold Super Bowl"

     Who crunked it up deep into Monday morning? Big Daddy and the Who Dats showed tireless endurance to commemorate the Saints’ monumental achievement. Bourbon Street became ground zero as Saints fans taught national TV media outlets that they can no longer treat the Saints like they’re in Kansas. The all-night celebration has South Beach feeling pretty nervous. Over the Saints 43-year lifespan, traversing the yellow brick road brought some good times, and even though the Black ’ n’ Gold always fought hard, staying a loyal Saints through years of painful heartache was a true challenge. Forget wearing bags or being called Aints ever again! Now it’s our time to watch broadcasters get a little brown on their beaks complimenting Saints football. In this week’s edition of the

Continue reading "Big Daddy Finally Meets the Wizard"

     Thank goodness The Times-Picayune finally jumped on the Big Daddy bandwagon by printing the “Big Daddy’s Suggestions to Promote Intensity” excerpt in the Living section article “ A playoff pep talk from your fellow Who Dats” last Saturday. Saints fans heeded Big Daddy’ s advice.

     Spearheaded by Section 645, they pumped up the Superdome’s volume throughout the playoff game. The Saints dashed Arizona’s dreams of defending last year’s NFC crown with their explosive offense, which scored five first-half touchdowns. Effective special teams (thanks to Reggie Bush), and Gregg Williams’ aggressive, opportunistic defense combined with the crowd’s relentless roaring to shatter Arizona’s dreams of defending last year’s NFC crown. In this week’s edition of the

Continue reading "Big Daddy Celebrates a Playoff Pummel"

     Last Saturday and Sunday, America watched eight teams battle through Round 1 of the NFL playoffs. The four wildcard winners earned the right to travel to the hostile environments of the teams who garnered the best records throughout pro football’ s regular season. Wow, enjoying the playoffs stress-free, while the Saints got rested and ready made Big Daddy feel more relaxed than Tiger Woods when he travels the world. Hey local golf fans, are you pissed? Tiger’ s doing a sex clinic in Mississippi, but he won’t support the Zurich Classic. The Reverend Al Sharpton hopes there’s no white chicks on staff, otherwise Nike’s golf division will forced to break out the Salt Peter to keep Tiger’s Driver in the bag. In this week’s edition of the

Continue reading "Big Daddy Uses Second Bye to Prepare"

     Sunday’s pathetic showing in North Carolina ignited harsh Saints criticism on all the national networks. Broadcasters told America that no NFL team has ever made it to the Super Bowl after loosing their final 3 games. Lambasting the Black ’ n’ Gold has become more trendy than misguided saps adding the latest, greatest apps to their wireless devices to improve their lives. If the Who Dat Nation’s psyche got discouraged that easily, Saints ownership would have moved the team to another city a long time ago. Sadly, the only way to silence those critics is to win the trophy on February 7, 2010. In this week’s edition of the Section 645 Saints Beat, Big Daddy delivers 2009’s final regular season Kingpin update, recaps the Carolina game, watches the Fiesta Bowl, covers the Citi BCS Championship game, demands change in NCAA policies, and releases his

Continue reading "Big Daddy Takes Third Straight Loss in Stride"

     Back-to-back Saints’ losses has Big Daddy incensed. Even though the Saints clinched home field advantage for the first time in franchise history. The Saints reached this unprecedented milestone thanks to their recent nemesis, the Chicago Bears, who knocked off Minnesota in 2009’s final Monday Night Football game. The improbable overtime victory allowed the Black ’n’ Gold to back into the NFC’s No. 1 seed. Imagining this day in past years, Big Daddy envisioned popping champagne (like Tim Whitmer must have each time he landed a lucrative insurance deal as the Jefferson Parish CAO) to commemorate such a monumental achievement. In this week’s edition of the Section 645 Saints Beat, Big Daddy celebrates New Year’s Eve at Tipitina’s, reports live from Section 645, recaps the Tampa Bay game, covers the Sugar Bowl, explains the demise of the Mid-City Bonfire, and releases his

Continue reading "Big Daddy Exhales a Painful AARGH!"

     Saturday night football in the Superdome had every member of the Who Dat Nation dreaming of an undefeated season with the Saints sporting a 13-0 record. Big Daddy’ s experiences have taught him how great expectations in sports can quickly crash and burn. Guiding the team through the emotional rollercoaster of an NFL campaign requires Coach Payton to juggle more than Tiger Woods managing his harem. Perhaps Tiger should make a guest appearance on HBO’ s series about Mormons, Big Love? People judge the way you handle adversity. As the Saints attempt to garner the top seed, journalists and Saints fans will document the effect of the Saints’ first loss of the season. In this week’ s edition of the Section 645 Saints Beat, Big Daddy tailgates outside the Superdome, delivers a live update from Section 645, recaps the Dallas game, evaluates recent team weaknesses, reports from the New Orleans Bowl, and releases his

Continue reading "Big Daddy Blames Lack of Balance For Bump in the Road"

     Sunday’ s lackluster Saints performance encouraged devoted Saints onlookers to do their best Fred Sanford impersonations (grabbing their chest, sensing “ The Big One” ), while the Saints struggled, but held off those rotten “ Dirty Birds” . The Saints surpassed another milestone in this magical 2009 season. Previously, 12 wins stood as the team record for the most wins in any season, which they achieved under Jim Mora in 1987 and 1992, led by Bobby Hebert and the awesome “ Dome Patrol” . As the pressure mounts on the ’ 09 players to stay perfect, Big Daddy believes the double-time formula will reduce Saints fans’ unbearable stress to a manageable level. If you normally drink one beer a quarter, make it two and everything will be all right. For those fans who don’ t drink, you better find Dr. Feelgood before the playoffs start. In this week’s edition of the

Continue reading "Big Daddy Embraces Lucky 13"

     How many Saints’ fans wrote off the Saints when Washington lined up their game-clinching 23-yard field goal? This year’ s “ Finish” mentality has produced the franchise’s best season start ever, not to mention the team’s most unbelievable victory in 43 years Sunday. Previous season mottos never produced the results that the ’ 09 slogan has. Big Daddy wonders if the Saints brought in Tiger Woods to demonstrate how awesome happy endings feel? Tiger always benefits from coming hard at the end both on and off the course. If it works for Saints fans for the next 13 years, the Superdome staff will have lots of new banners to hang. Seriously, Big Daddy wants Saints fans to understand the significance of a team that wins games they should lose. Haven’ t we suffered the downside of that equation for far too long? Hell yeah! But now its our time! In this edition of the

Continue reading "Big Daddy Believes In Miracles"

     Forget stressing out about the threat of Swine Flu, Black ’ n’ Gold Fever is spreading across the country faster than U.S. Attorney Jim Letten opens new corruption investigations at City Hall. Prior to the game, the biased Northeastern-controlled television sports media told national TV viewers that the team of the decade (New England) would expose those fraudulent Saints. After the Saints pummeled New England Monday night, the Fever’s infection rate reached epidemic proportions. Worried Americans started seeking a cure to this peculiar new virus. Well don’t be frightened, Big Daddy knows the only remedy: Jump on the “Who Dat Bandwagon” rolling through your city and start enjoying life. In this week’s edition of the Section 645 Saints Beat

Continue reading "Big Daddy Cranks the Volume to Eleven"