Saints Set Season Ticket Sales Record

The New Orleans Saints have set a new franchise season ticket sales record–despite a population half what it was before Hurricane Katrina.

The New Orleans Saints have set a franchise record for season-ticket sales, four months before making their post-Hurricane Katrina return to the Superdome. The Saints, who spent last season in San Antonio after Katrina flooded the city and severely damaged the Superdome, have sold 54,969 season tickets, surpassing the previous record of 53,728 set in August 2003.

Owner Tom Benson said Wednesday that the Saints received “a spike” in ticket sales after drafting Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush last month, but they were already on a record pace. “I want to thank the devoted and loyal fans who have shown tremendous support for the New Orleans Saints,” Benson said. “This is a great day for the Saints and the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. To sell a record number of tickets four months before our first game is unbelievable.”

The population of New Orleans remains less than half of what it was before the storm hit Aug. 29. “It’s truly inspirational to see these fans rally around the team and the city,” Benson said. “We knew the fans were there, but we didn’t know whether they would be able to be involved with buying tickets or not. “People talk about there only being 100,000 or so back, but a lot of them are just 30 miles or so up the road and they’re back buying tickets.”

The only bad news is that sales of all-important luxury suites are down.

Despite the increase in season ticket sales, executive vice president of administration Rita Benson LeBlanc said the team has sold 81 of the 137 suites in the Superdome, and Tom Benson said the sale of corporate sponsorships has been disappointing but improving. NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue has made several visits to the region since the Saints returned in January. On Feb. 14, Tagliabue and Benson met with a group of 27 area business leaders who pledged to help sell tickets, suites and sponsorships. “The commissioner and I have been very disappointed with the reaction of the business community,” Benson said. “But their support is coming. A lot of businesses are having problems and it’s been very difficult for them to make commitments. We’re looking forward to them doing their part.”

Still, excellent news overall.

This is especially heartening considering that a few months ago there was serious talk of the Saints not returning to town.

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Related:

NFL May Move Saints to Los Angeles
Sources: Saints Unlikely to Return to New Orleans
Katrina: Impact on College and Pro Sports
Hurricane Damage to Superdome Forcing Saints to Move Opener
New Orleans Evacuating for Hurricane Ivan

Andre Reed Joins Bills Wall of Fame

Andre Reed has been selected as the 23rd member of the Bills’ Wall of Fame.

The Buffalo Bills announced Sunday they will add the name of retired receiver Andre Reed to the Ralph Wilson Stadium Wall of Fame. Reed is the team’s career receptions leader with 941 catches for 13,095 yards during a 15-year career in which he helped the Bills win an unprecedented four AFC titles in the 1990s. He also has 87 career touchdowns, tied for first on the team with running back Thurman Thomas. Reed ranks fourth on the NFL list with 951 catches for 13,198 yards.

[...]

He will become the 23rd member of the Bills’ Wall of Fame, an honor created in 1980 to reward the team’s former members, including coaches and administrators.

There’s little doubt that Reed is deserving. Still, it strikes me as strange that a team that has never won a championship has 23 members in its hall of honor. By contrast, the Dallas Cowboys have five Super Bowl wins and another three appearances, has only 17 in their Ring of Honor–and three of those were inducted this year.

Michael Jordan’s Big Brother

Michael Jordan’s older brother James recently retired as the top sergeant major in the Army’s Signal Corps. The Fayetteville (NC) Observer has an interesting profile.

James R. Jordan asked himself a question when his younger brother Michael became a NBA star in the mid-1980s. The elder Jordan, who had already spent about a decade in the Army, said, “OK, what are you going to be? Are you going to ride a coattail or are you going to keep doing like you are doing?”

James Jordan opted to keep doing what he was doing. Now, at age 48, he can look back on a 31-year Army career in which he became command sergeant major of the Army’s only airborne signal brigade, which is based at Fort Bragg. That’s the top job for an enlisted signal soldier.

[...]

Jordan always made his own way as a soldier. He didn’t hesitate to speak up when something needed to be said and made a point of downplaying his family tie, Allen said. “He would hardly let anybody ever come up and ask him about it,” Allen said. “He would probably flame you out if you said that to him.”

Jordan was bumping up against his 30-year retirement date when the 35th Signal Brigade got orders to go to Iraq in 2004. He talked to his family and decided he should go. “Jordan put his life on hold to go to deploy to Iraq with his soldiers,” said Allen, who made the same decision as command sergeant major of the 1st Corps Support Command. Jordan and Col. Bryan W. Ellis took the signal brigade to war in November 2004 and had responsibility for as many as 4,000 soldiers during a yearlong combat tour. “When I made the decision, I knew it was the right thing,” Jordan said.

[...]

Jordan went out his own way during an April 13 retirement ceremony on Fort Bragg. “Do you know that even though Michael Jordan was out there, everybody was still in line to shake Sergeant Major Jordan’s hand, not to pay homage to his brother,” Allen said. “I thought that was so cool. It was about Jordan the man.”

The Jordan family work ethic served both brothers quite well, taking them to the top of their careers.

NFL Draft 2006 – Round 1 #4 – New York Jets – OT D’Brickashaw Ferguson

The Jets need a quarterback, with Chad Pennington’s reliability in great doubt. Matt Leinart is a gift at #4. But the safe move is likely offensive line. D’Brickashaw Ferguson is probably going off next.

Pick: They took Ferguson. Safe and likely solid. They’ll kick themselves if Leinart turns out to be a stud and Pennington does not recover, though.

Draft Wisdom from Rick Gosselin

It recently occured to me that I held two, seemingly contradictory, views of NFL drafting strategy in my head.

The first, which I internalized by reading Dallas Morning News‘ NFL Hall of Fame sportswriter Rick “Goose” Gosselin, is that there are six crucial positions around which a championship team are built: Quarterback, running back, wide receiver, right offensive tackle, pass rushing defensive end/linebacker, and cover corner.

Yet there’s another truism out there, which I also believe, that teams should draft “the best available player on their boards” when it’s their turn.

There’s something of a conflict between these views. Should a team not always take one of the key six positions in the first round every year? It’s not like many teams are set at all six and don’t need a player in waiting for one of those slots.

So, I went straight to the source and e-mailed Gosselin. He responded:

When you can.

If one of those six is not there, you don’t reach for it. That’s why you see tight ends, middle linebackers, safeties, guards and centers go in the first round every year. If I’m drafting in the Top 10 and I have a choice between a safety and left tackle, I take the left tackle. If my board does not have one of the six positions in the draft range, you go with your best player.

Understand this, however. No two boards are the same. There is no “right” board or “wrong” board. And most people build their boards to recognize the needs of the team.

And that makes sense.

This year, for example, there are three supposed blue chippers at quarterback: USC’s Matt Leinart, Texas’ Vince Young, and Vandy’s Jay Cutler. If you’re looking for a quarterback and those guys are gone, you don’t draft, say, Alabama’s Brodie Croyle in the first round over a projected superstar at a less sexy position.

A great safety is a better choice than a merely good “Big 6″ player. But, all things being equal, you take one of those guys.

Woodson Signs with Packers

The Green Bay Packers finally got a big-name free agent signed. Cornerback Charles Woodson becomes the sixth Heisman Trophy winner to don the green and gold. Brett Favre’s decision to not retire played a role, but coach Mike McCarthy telling Woodson he’d get some playing time on offense sealed the deal. With Javon Walker wanting to be traded the Packers only have Donald Driver as a real threat in their wide receiver corps.

Mark Cuban: Pittsburgh Penguins Owner?

Mark Cuban eyes ownership stake in Pittsburgh Penguins.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is interested in becoming a limited partner in a new ownership group trying to buy the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, according to a report.

“I have told several people who have contacted me that, although I wouldn’t be the lead or largest investor, I would kick in some money if it would help,” Cuban, a Pittsburgh native, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

I’m not sure how I feel about this one . . . Cuban is a bit of a firebrand, but his Pittsburgh background may just be what keeps the Penguins in Pittsburgh when they hit the auction block. Also, I’m not sure I like having to like the owner of any Dallas team.

Now I really want to see him do something with the other losing team in Pittsburgh.

Cuban has also expressed interest in owning the Pittsburgh Pirates, who are not currently for sale.

The Pirates need SOMETHING lit underneath them – Cuban may be just the thing. You know that baseball is not going well when you see this series of headlines on the Tribune Review’s website:

Another game to forget
Cards rally to beat Pirates
Pirates lose sixth straight
Casey injury affects Bay
Cardinals 6, Pirates 3: How they scored
Eldred out four months

Eesh. At least the Steelers won that little game called the Super Bowl a few months back.

Favre Will Play in 2006

ESPN reports Brett Favre finally decided to play in 2006.

Jerry Kramer’s Super Bowl I Ring Found

Jerry Kramer, an offensive lineman on the great Green Bay Packer teams of the 1960s, had his ring from the first Super Bowl stolen twenty years ago. It was discovered being auctioned on the Web. Sean Hackbarth has the rest of the story.

“Its greatest significance is that it was Super Bowl I,” [Kramer] said Friday in a telephone interview from his home in Boise, Idaho. “You can get excited about Super Bowl XV or Super Bowl XXV or Super Bowl XXXV, but there’s nothing like the first one.”

Indeed, it wasn’t even called “the Super Bowl” at that point.