New Orleans Saints

The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Saints are currently champions of the Southern Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL).

The Saints were founded in 1967, as a result of the AFL-NFL Merger, for which legislation was helped pass in Congress by the Louisiana contingent of Senators and Representatives. Louisiana was rewarded for its lobbying with an NFL franchise, which can be considered a direct result of the existence of the rival American Football League (AFL 1960 - 1969) and the subsequent merger of the NFL with the AFL. They went more than a decade before they managed to finish a season with a .500 record and two decades before having a winning season. The teams first successful years were from 1987-1992, when the team made the playoffs four times and had winning records in the non-playoff seasons. In the 2000 season, the Saints defeated the then defending Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams for the team's first playoff win.

The Saints' home stadium is the Louisiana Superdome. The team has played its home games in the "dome" since 1975. However, due to damage caused by Hurricane Katrina to the New Orleans area, the Saints' 2005 home opener was played at Giants Stadium, the home stadium of their opponent, the New York Giants. The remainder of their 2005 home games were split between the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, and LSU's Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After a $185 million renovation of the historic stadium, the team returned to the Superdome for the 2006 season. The team played its 2006 home opener in front of a sold-out crowd and national television audience on September 25, 2006, defeating its NFC South rival, the Atlanta Falcons by a score of 23-3. The victory received a 2007 ESPY award for "Best Moment in Sports."

The Saints are one of six teams (joined by the Cleveland Browns, Houston Texans, Arizona Cardinals, Jacksonville Jaguars and the Detroit Lions) to never to have played in a Super Bowl. The Saints did qualify for the NFC Championship Game on January 13, 2007, after defeating the Philadelphia Eagles 27-24 in the divisional round of the playoffs. They are the first team in NFL history to reach a conference championship after losing 13 or more games the previous season. They suffered a 39-14 loss the following week to the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship.