The Saints win is proof that anything is possible. That hard work and perseverance pays off in the end. That nothing beats a lose but a try. That courage and faith can overcome any obstacle. The democratic party should take heed and learn the lessons of the world champion New Orleans Saints.
New Orleans Saints History and American African American History
In honor of Black History Month The African American Experience in Professional Football is a must read for football fans and history buffs.
The New Orleans Saints franchise was the result of a back room deal.
The brainchild of local sports entrepreneur Dave Dixon, who also founded the Louisiana Super Dome and USFL, the Saints were actually secretly born in a backroom deal brought about by Congressman Hale Boggs and NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle. The NFL needed congressional approval of the proposed AFL-NFL merger.[4] Dixon and a local civic group had been seeking a NFL franchise for over 5 years, and had hosted record crowds to NFL exhibition games.
Read about the behind the scene deal making HERE
The Saints were the offspring of Congressional approval of the National Football League-American Football League merger in 1966. And it was Boggs, the House majority whip at the time, who guided passage of a law that granted the leagues the limited immunity from antitrust laws that they needed to merge.
The AFL (American Football League) was more liberal than the NFL(National Football League).
Early on, the American Football League began recruiting from small colleges, which the NFL had avoided. Drawing on this source of talent that had been essentially untapped by the NFL, in the AFL's first year its teams signed such stars as Elbert Dubenion (Bluffton), Lionel Taylor (New Mexico Highlands), and Abner Haynes (North Texas State). For black players, the AFL's recruitment from small colleges opened a door that the NFL had cracked only grudgingly. On a per-team basis, the AFL had a significantly greater number of black players than the NFL, which had still not fully overcome the exclusion of blacks precipitated by the entry into the league of openly bigoted Redskins owner George Preston Marshall. Accordingly, the American Football League hired many more black college talent scouts, including the Houston Oilers' Tom Williams and The Kansas City Chiefs' Lloyd C.A. Wells, pro football's first black full-time scout, who was credited with signing AFL Hall of Famers Otis Taylor and Buck Buchanan as well as a half-dozen other Chiefs who achieved AFL All-Star status.
Minority players in the NFL have increased since the early days and Recent surveys have shown that the current, post-merger NFL is approximately 57–61% non-white (this includes African Americans, Polynesians, non-white Hispanics, Asians, and people that are mixed race.) The NFL made history in 2007 when two teams coached by African American Head coaches were in the Super Bowl,e number of minority head coaches in the NFL is still lacking according to this report.
Ironically, former Baltimore Colts coach Tony Dungee was the first African American NFL head coach to win a Super Bowl and the Baltimore Colts have some Bama ties. Baltimore Colts Corner Back Jerraud Powers is a native of Decatur, Alabama and a former Auburn Tiger. Defensive End Robert Mathis is former Alabama A&M Bulldog.
Who Dat? We Dat!!!
Peace Out.
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