Syracuse Orange Football: We Need 44

Many mojologists say its very bad mojo to bury good memories.

After a successful 2006 season, Sean Payton's New Orleans Saints took many of the team's trophies and mementos and buried them in a coffin.

It was, Payton thought, an act to remind everybody that the past is gone and the new season is all that matters.

The Saints struggled that season and some players sought out a New Orleans hoodoo lady, and she said it was bad mojo to bury good memories. So some Saints players dug up the coffin and freed their buried treasures.

And the worm turned for the better.

Syracuse Coach Doug Marrone was a coach on that Saints' staff. The Syracuse Orange need to change their mojo. They need to jump start their juju. The Orange need to dig up jersey No. 44 and dish it out some prized recruit.

And they need to do it with style. Doug Marrone needs to take that jersey down to Marshall Street and have a few pops with it. That old jersey needs a parade up, down, and all around Syracuse town.

Marrone needs help. The fans need help. The Orange need help.

Reviving 44 would pump some much needed life and excitement back into a program that has struggled for a decade.

Marrone ought to bring up a Dixieland marching band. Every parade needs brass badly but this parade needs even more.

He ought to call all the old 44's he can find: Jim Brown, Floyd Little, Michael Owens, Rob Konrad, Ernie Davis' kin, and all the rest.

The Orange ought to get Vanessa Williams back in her Calypso costume she wore in Odysseus.

They ought to bring in and dress up Al Davis, Ted Koppel, Joyce Carol Oates, Marv Albert, Bob Costas, Mike Tirco, Joe Biden, Len Berman, Sean McDonough, Jerry Stiller, Tim Green, Eileen Collins, Story Musgrave, Larry Czonka, Art Monk, Coach Mac, Donnie Mac, Daryl Johnston, Colombo, Dick Clark, the Saltine Warrior, Dome Eddy, Tobias Wolfe, Lou Reed, and a group of Onondaga Native Americans and march Mardi Gras style to the 50-yard line with old No. 44.

It's been all bad mojo since the magic number went in mothballs, and now it's time for a change.

We want more 44.

The Orange needs more 44.

Bring back the double fours for more.