Jackson Free Press

The New Orleans Saints have been Mississippi's NFL team since they kicked off in 1967 (God help us). So much so that the Saints even have a ticket office in Jackson. And Saints games are on the radio on WJDX-620 AM. When WDBD switched from the Fox network to the WB in 2001, fans who wanted to watch the Saints on TV were largely left in the lurch. Of course, the Saints were so bad in the second half of last season that few people wanted to see them anyway. Talk about kicking it old style.

This season, the Saints' first four games have all been on local (cable) television on Fox, and Sunday's game with the Pittsburgh Steelers will be on CBS (WJTV-12). The Saints have been worth watching again, jumping out to a 3-1 start.

Conversely, the Steelers (1-3) have been unwatchable, so, naturally, they have been on national TV twice. Coach Bill Cowher finally came to grips with reality this week and benched starting quarterback Kordell Stewart, the has-been formerly known as Slash. Tommy Maddox, the XFL's most valuable player in its one season of existence (I guess that makes him the best player in XFL history, if you want it) will start Sunday against the Saints. Maddox rallied the Steelers to their first victory of the season last week against the bad-luck Cleveland Browns. This will be Maddox's first NFL start since 1992. He had been out of the NFL for six years before signing with the Steelers earlier this year.

Kordell almost cried when he got the bad news on Wednesday (adding to his anguish: he's from New Orleans). This is the third time he's been benched since Cowher made the original mistake of making him the Steelers' starting QB back in 1997. The Steelers reached the AFC title game twice in that time (and lost both times at home), but their success was in spite of Kordell, not because of him. Cowher's insistence on starting Kordell has been as much about stubbornness as loyalty.

Unhappy Kordell vowed, "I will play on Sundays again." Are you switching back to receiver, Kordell? Or going to the Canadian Football League?

For news and previews on the Saints, Steelers and the rest of the NFL, check out:
http://www.nfl.com

For more info on Kordell's possible future employer, check out:
http://www.cfl.ca

Previous Comments

ID

117999

Comment

You know, Dr. S, I think you've made a mistake. Throughout my childhood and teen years, my sports-fanatic stepdad only called that New Orleans football team by one name: "them-damned-Saints." I'm not sure I'd recognize any other way.

Author

ladd

Date

2002-10-04T16:04:28-06:00