Drew Brees New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees scrambling away from a Dallas Cowboys defender during an NFL game, December 19, 2009.
News • New Orleans Saints Blasted for NFL’s ‘Most Shocking’ Trade • Aug. 29, 2025, 4:18 AM ET (Newsweek)
New Orleans Saints, American professional football team based in New Orleans that plays in the National Football Conference (NFC) of the NFL. The Saints have won one Super Bowl championship (2010).
(Read Walter Camp’s 1903 Britannica essay on inventing American footb
The Saints began play in 1967 as an expansion franchise. Like most expansion teams, the Saints struggled in their first year in the NFL, losing 11 of their 14 games. However, the futility of the team’s efforts was particularly pronounced, as it took 20 years for them to post their first winning season. Over those first decades the team garnered the somewhat affectionate nickname “the ’Aints” from their fans—some of whom attended home games at the Louisiana Superdome with bags over their heads in reaction to the franchise’s prolonged ineffectiveness.
Serena Williams poses with the Daphne Akhurst Trophy after winning the Women’s Singles final against Venus Williams of the United States on day 13 of the 2017 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 28, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (tennis, sports)
Two notable figures to play for the Saints during that time were Archie Manning (father of future NFL quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Eli Manning), who was one of the most popular players in franchise history as quarterback of the team from 1971 to midway through the 1982 season, and Tom Dempsey, who kicked an NFL-record (tied in 1998) 63-yard game-winning field goal in 1970. In 1983 the team’s fans adopted a long-standing chant used at local high school and collegiate football games. The chant (“Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?”) is rooted in both Southern Black folk culture and in the minstrel “adaptation” of it. The term Who Dat became a byname for the franchise among members of its fan base.
Morten AndersonNew Orleans Saint kicker Morten Anderson was named to six Pro Bowls in his 13 seasons with the team (1982–94).
The Saints’ first winning season came in 1987, as a high-scoring offense led by quarterback Bobby Hebert and a stout defense starring linebackers Rickey Jackson and Sam Mills combined to propel the Saints to a 12–3 record and a playoff berth. However, the Saints badly lost their first postseason contest to the Minnesota Vikings. New Orleans had winning records again in 1988 and 1989 but