NEW ORLEANS — Sometimes in life endings just sneak up and shock you. Sometimes you know the ending is near and try to craft it and execute it the way you want. Sometimes it's a mix of both. But the ending always comes no matter what.
The ending has arrived for me and this silly little column at WWLTV.com. It's my call but it's time.
I thought maybe I'd exit when Drew Brees left, but writing about the post-Drew Brees Saints seemed like it'd be fun and challenging. Then Sean Payton ejected and I thought some more about it. The thing is, leaving right after Brees and Payton hit the road felt lame and, besides making jokes about the Dennis Allen Era energized me.
My favorite thing in crafting this column was trying to make y'all laugh no matter what the Saints were accomplishing on the field. Writing great columns when Saints were winning big or were terrible was always easier. It's when they got stuck in the mediocre middle that making the funny was hard. I always like the hard.
It took me a while to find my voice, but in 2006 or 2007 I found it. I wasn't here to break down film or give you serious football analysis. I was here to write about how the Saints make us feel. The main question I always asked myself when writing after a Saints game was “Why was that funny?”
Dennis Allen now and the terrible Saints defenses from 2014-2016 were the weirdest writing inspiration in the history of everything. The poor linebacker and cornerback jokes I made from 2014-2016 are too many to count.
I'm not one for anniversaries or milestones so I'm not even sure when I started this little column. Maybe 2002? It's a lot of words.
The great moments like 2009 and the terrible ones like the 2018 no call always somehow brought out some of my favorite writing. I was never really concerned with being right about my Saints predictions. I just wanted to convey the emotions I felt during any given week because maybe you felt the same emotions too.
My favorite columns are ramblings of pure emotion like when we were filled with hysterical laughter after the crazy Saints win in 2016 against San Diego, where my mom and me giggled for 15 minutes wondering if what we just watched was real or this one from early 2017 declaring the Drew Brees Sean Payton Era dead, buried and over. It's hilariously erroneous but the story I tell about the fan buying concessions was true and so perfect for that moment.
I've loved doing this column here and I'll still write some at my site Saintshappyhour.com and maybe somewhere else, but I won't have the great Tom Planchet to edit me and argue over the craziness the Saints will surely be delivering us. Tom was the best editor and taught me how to say whatever the heck I wanted to without being mean, obnoxious or crass. I always loved trying to get my happiness, outrage, madness, or frustration filtered through him into a PG-rated form.
Before I go, if Saints football is a huge part of your life and how you bond with parents or family, I say to you being recklessly optimistic and possibly delusional about any upcoming Saints season is the way to live. You never know when the times you'll be able to call your mom, your dad or best friend after some absurd, preposterous Saints game won't be there for you. So take in those moments.
I'll never endorse or approve of the modern sports idea that “I have to root for the Saints to lose before the season starts because if the Saints aren't a serious Super Bowl contender they aren't worth watching.”
We look forward to Saints football all year and some of us are blessed to spend thousands of dollars to see them play in person. Why would I root for that experience to be terrible before it begins?
If I told you, “I've saved up for a dream vacation in Paris but I really hope the Eiffel Tower falls over. The French really need to get it together. A miserable vacation now means some vacation in the near or distant future will be better because Paris needs a rebuild.”
You'd look at me like I was cuckoo for coco puffs. Live for the now.
If I judged the Saints value in my life by Lombardi Trophies I'd have left them for something else a long time ago.
The best thing about Saints football is the bond it gives us to each other.
Life is hard but Saints football is a little thing that makes it better. I hope this column made you laugh and made Saints football a bit more entertaining wherever you are.
Embrace all the feels the Saints give you, the connections to loved ones it delivers, and the memories that give us chills whenever we think of moments like Steve Gleason in 2006 or Tracy Porter in Miami.
This column ends a lot like a Saints game... we don't always get the ending we want. We get the ending we get. Thanks for reading and if you run into me ask me about the Saints because the Saints bring us together and together is always better.
Ralph Malbrough was a contributing writer and is a Saints fan living in Houston. Email him at saintshappyhour@gmail.com, find him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter at @SaintsForecast or download the Saints Happy Hour Podcast.
