Sports: New Orleans Saints Tickets

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The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team who are based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They currently are the members of the Southern Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL).The Saints have struggled throughout their history though founded in 1967.Before managing to finish a season with a .500 record they went two decades before winning a season. The greatest years of their success were from 1987-1992, when they made playoffs four times. The Saints defeated the St. Louis Rams in dramatic fashion for the team's only playoff win in 2000 season.

Due to the Hurricane Katrina's damage to the New Orleans area, the Saints' 2005 home games split between the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, and LSU's Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. All of the team's 2006 regular season home games were scheduled to be played in the Superdome, with the first game at the Superdome on September 25 of that year. The Saints are one of three teams, along with Jacksonville and Houston never to have played in either a Super Bowl or any other NFL Championship Game. They are the oldest franchise with that distinction.
An NFL franchise was granted to the New Orleans on 1 November, 1966. John W. Mecom, Jr. was the majority stockholder, and on 9 January 1967 the team was named the Saints. The Saints lost their first game 27-13 to the Los Angeles Rams despite a 94 yard opening kickoff return for a touchdown by John Gilliam. 3-11 was their first season record and they could not manage even to finish as high as second in their division until 1979.

The Saints lost their first 14 games in 1980 prompting fans to design paper bags to wear over their heads to the team's home games. The bags rendered the club's name as the "'Aints" rather than the "Saints," and the practice spread rapidly, first to fans of other poorly-performing teams within the NFL and ultimately followed to those of other American team sports as well. It has become a firmly-established custom throughout the United States.

Tom Benson, the current Saints owner acquired the franchise in 1985. He hired Jim Finks as general manager and Jim Mora as head coach. This combination enabled the Saints with their first-ever winning record and playoff appearance, going 12-3 in the 1987 season. It had one fewer game than normal due to a players' strike. Another playoff berth followed in 1990 leading to the club's first division title in 1991. Jim Haslett, the current coach held the post since 2000, and took the team to the playoffs but lost to the Minnesota Vikings a week after besting the St. Louis Rams for the team's first ever playoff win. The Saints failed in 2001 and 2002 to make the playoffs but in the latter year had the distinction of beating the eventual Super Bowl XXXVII winners Tampa Bay in both of their regular season meetings.