As local and national media and fans pile on the 2009 New Orleans Saints for their late-season struggles, my guess is the chip has made a transformation.
In the lull that is a first-round bye, the New Orleans Saints by this time must have a mountain, not a chip, on their shoulder, as they rest, read and listen to all the pundits blab about their poor late-season play and the newfound greatness of the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers.
The short-term memory loss of sports fans is amazing. Facts become blurred, and negative opinion rules the day.
Know when the last time Dallas won a playoff game? 14 years ago, 1996! Dang, that was so long ago, people then actually thought Ditka was a coaching genius.
Know how many playoff games Aaron Rogers has played in? None, zero, nada. Aaron Brooks started more games in the playoff neighborhood than Mr. Rogers.
After a sizzling 13-0 start, the Saints were the NFL darlings. Debates raged about whether they would go 19-0 and win it all.
Then the NFL prince Saints turned into a three-game losing streak frog, and everyone jumped off the pumpkin onto the teams-of-the-week, the Cowboys and Packers.
Romo this, Roger that.
The Saints? Forgotten. Dissed. Bad-mouthed. One-and-done. Overrated. More and more verbal piling on by everyone.
Know what? I'm glad.
Because players - and teams - of true character play best when challenged, when there is a cause to fight for (cue the Braveheart music and William Wallace battlefield speech...)
At this time in the NFL season and in this time of parity, very little separates the #1 seed from the #6 seed.
The one common thread heard over and over again about this Saints team, last year in 8-8 adversity and this year as they were crowned the in-season best, is they have players of character.
With great character comes great pride.
Often the rallying battle cry of "Noboby believes in us" is one that separates teams come playoff time.
The 2001 Rams and 2007 Patriots had the wrong kind of pride. In their case, everyone believed in them. That false pride cost each a Superbowl.
But teams with wounded pride, 2000 Giants, 2001 Pats, 2003 Panthers, 2005 Steelers, 2007 Giants, and the 2008 Cardinals, circled their wagons all way to the Superbowl over "Nobody believes in us."
You hear it all the time after a win, "The only people who thought we could win are in this locker room" or "No one said we could do it, so we decided to shut them up."
Hurt pride often is the great separator and motivator.
(Bill Simmons of ESPN has a great read on this "Nobody believes in us" factor:http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100108 )
Right now, everyone is throwing their flaming arrows at the Saints, challenging their character.
Watch out, because men of character, and a Saints team of character with something to fight for is a dangerous animal.
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